Kookaburra's Juliet
by mrs.kookaburra.splatalot
Summary: Kookaburra is fed up with being on lookout at the Splatalot castle, so some new defenders are hired to keep things going smoothly around the castle, but when late applying Nightingale (made up) comes for an interview and gets given the job, how can Kookaburra keep his feelings for her to himself, especially when the king tells him that defenders can't be in relationships.
1. Chapter 1 Kookaburra

**Chapter 1 Kookaburra**

It was another morning and another day at the Splatalot castle, things weren't really changing, like every day I'd get up out of my nest, then me and the other defenders would see the king for him to give us our morning duties before breakfast, I'll normally be on lookout, Gildar and Ballista would be on defence, not that they do much defence as there's not been as many attacking's over the past week or so, Knightriss would be guarding the gates, Tinkor would be creating the weapons and Crocness, Thorne, Shaiden and Skabb would be given and jobs left over, I wish that I could be given something else than lookout, it can get very boring and lonely up there on your own.

A quick ruffle of the feathers, adjustment of the hair, and putting on my boots and goggles I was now ready for his majesty's commands, as I left my room Gildar was just walking down the corridor.

"Morning." He said cheerfully

I sighed. "Yeah morning."

"What's up with you? What happened to the always laughing always joking Kookaburra you normally are?"

"I'm just not feeling myself."

"You can say that again, come on there's something on your mind, so what is it?"

"Well, I've just got this feeling that I'm going to be put on lookout duty."

"What's bad about that? I'd rather be on lookout duty, anyway, you do the job really well."

"Yeah, but that's the duty I always get, it can be pretty lonely and boring up there on your own, I don't know why the king always chooses me."

"Like I said, it's probably because you're so good at it."

Shaiden, Thorne and Ballista were already at the king's quarters we were just waiting for a few of the others and we were ready to enter, we weren't waiting for a few of the others and we were ready to enter, we weren't waiting more than 2 minutes, Ballista stepped forward and gently knocked on the door, despite that it was a gentle knock it still seemed loud.

"Enter." The king beckoned.

We could then open the doors and entered the room, the king was stood where he normally stands at the normal table that he stands at with a map of the castle in front of him on the table as normal.

"Your Highness." We all said simultaneously, bowing.

"So what are our morning duties today sire?" Thorne asked.

"Yes, your duties, Thorne and Shaiden, you two are going to be on defence, Knightriss, you'll be on the gates, Tinkor, you'll be making the weapons, Kookaburra, you'll be on lookout and Gildar and Ballista, you two can help Tinkor with the weapons, Crocness, you can assist Knightriss and Skabb you can assist Shaiden and Thorne."

Great, lookout again for me, but everyone else was getting help, why can't I, not that I need help, it would just be nice to have someone to talk to.

I knew where I had to go, over to the lookout tower, the tallest tower in the castle and will basically stay there all morning, maybe all day, sometimes while I'm up there I could do with some help as when I need to keep lookout, that means everywhere, so I'll have to keep on changing position, as if my legs and feet weren't aching enough already.

Getting to the top of the tower my legs were throbbing and y lungs were burning, i should be used to it by now, but it does have it's up sides, the view is fantastic for starters, from where I was I could see Knightriss and Crocness by the gates, and Skabb with Shaiden and Thorne all of them were talking and having a good time, no doubt that Gildar, Ballista and Tinkor were also talking and having a real laugh whilst working, and again I'll be up here on my own with no company.

Between our shifts we would get 30 minute breaks, while everyone else was catching up on the gossip, I was sat thinking to myself when I was soon interrupted.

"Are you feeling alright Kook?" Shaiden asked.

"No, not really." I replied.

"What's wrong?"

"It's lookout duty."

"What about it?" Asked Skabb.

"It's boring, I get it everyday."

"Why don't you tell the king?"

"Tell the king? Like I'd do that, he's the one that gave me the job, if he wants me to do it then I've got to."

"Well, just ask the king if he could give you some different duties from time to time."

I sighed. "It's not the duty, I love being on lookout duty, it's just that it gets boring and sometimes lonely. That's another problem there's just not enough jobs going around and it's been like this for too long, I think that we're becoming too easy."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when we get attacked, they're starting to figure out our strengths and weaknesses and are starting to use them against us, do you see what I mean?"

"Yeah."

"We could do with some new defenders." Ballista suggested. "Keep this place going."

"Good idea." said Thorne. "But who's going to tell the king?"

"Not me!" We all said simultaneously.

"Ballista, it was your suggestion, maybe you should." said Gildar.

Ballista sighed. "Fine."

I was glad that it wasn't me giving the news to the king, even though it was me who started it, but I was hoping that the king would go along with it, it would be nice to have some new defenders around, which means that that would be some extra help, so finally I may no longer be on my own whilst on lookout.


	2. Chapter 2 Ballista

**Chapter 2 Ballista**

Just before our break was over I went to speak to the king, personally I think that Kookaburra should be telling the king, it was him who was complaining in the first place, as I approached the kings quarters, I told the guard outside what my business was.

"Could I speak to the king please?" I asked.

"Well, his majesty is rather busy at the moment but I'm sure that he could spare a bit of time, I'll go and let him know that you're here."

He then knocked on the door and opened it slightly.

"Your highness, Ballista's here, she wishes to have a word with you."

"Okay, send her in." said the king.

The guard stepped aside and allowed me to go past, as I entered the room, the door closed behind me.

"Your highness." I said curtsying, the king was sat at his desk with a piece of parchment in front of him and a quill pen in his right hand, putting the quill down he looked up at me.

"So Ballista, what can I help you with?" he asked.

"Well sire, me and the other defenders were talking just now and we think that it would be a good idea if we got some new defenders into the castle as Kook thinks that seeing as how things aren't really changing much, that we're starting to become a bit predictable making us much more vulnerable to attacks."

"Yes, I see what you mean, do all of you agree with this?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'll have a think about it and I'll let you all know tomorrow, thank you Ballista."

"You're welcome sire."

Curtsying again, I left the room, at least that he was going to think about it and let us know tomorrow, as I walked down the corridor, the others were just on their way back to their duties.

"So what did the king say?" Asked Knightriss.

"He said that he's going to think about it and let us know tomorrow."

"Hallelujah." said Kook.

I think that it's easy to say that we're all happy with the thought of some new defenders helping around the castle keeping our defences strong and powerful.

The next day I was up bright and early, I have to with the amount of time it takes me to get ready, I washed my face, quickly brushed my hair, applied my makeup, got dressed and left the room for the kings quarters, Shaiden, Gildar, Crocness and Kookaburra were already there and others weren't that far behind me, so we were could now enter and see what the king thought about our suggestion, this time he wasn't stood by the table as usual, intead he was over by the window looking out over the kingdom, I noticed that Kook had his fingers crossed.

"Your highness." We said together.

"Morning everyone." The king replied turning back towards us. "I'm sure that you're all aware about the message that Ballista gave me yesterday from you all, well I've come to a decision on what we're going to do."

We held our breath.

"I've been looking into how things have been going for you all, and I've noticed that some of you are struggling with the lack of assistance, so I've sent out a message letting people know that we're looking for some new defenders for the kingdom."

I heard Kookaburra let out a small sigh of relief.

"Thank you sire." said Knightriss. "But could I just suggest someone for the job?"

"Of course."

"Well my younger sister Madeva is also a knight like me and I'm sure that she'll be happy to defend here, she can be a bit crazy at some times, but she's also very determined."

"Well thank you for the suggestion Knightriss, if you could ask her to come for an interview then that would be superb."

The king told us that we would have to do the interviews for we know the best about what we need the new defenders to be like, there was going to be three of us doing the interviewing, we decided amongst us that me, Thorne and Kookaburra were going to do the interviews, the first was is 3 days.

3 days later and we got everything ready for the interviews, our first wannabe defender was called Vane, his interview seemed to go rather well, he seemed like a determined kind of guy and would happily take on anything, we were going to see how he'd do in the second half of the interview which was going to test him on how he'd cope within the castle and things that some of our enemies would try to throw at us, such as trying to get into the castle and attempting to attack, we were going to do all this on the same day, but we were pushed for time so we were going to have to do this tomorrow as a call-back.

We had 10 people to interview in total and had now interviewed 9 including Knightriss's younger sister Madeva, and she was right, she is a very determined person, and the fact that she can be a bit crazy, our last defender to interview was all the way from Britain and went by the name of Nightengale.


	3. Chapter 3 Kookaburra

**Chapter 3 Kookaburra**

From what I've heard about Nightingale, she seems like the kind of defender that we need, while we were waiting for her to arrive, I was going through the questions that I was going to be asking, I was so focused with what I was doing that I didn't even hear her walk into the room.

"Hello Nightingale, take a seat." said Ballista.

I looked up, she had a short shaggy-style haircut a dark shade of brown, decorated with black feathers, her outfit was a black leather dress that was longer at the back and feathered at the rim, the front of the dress just came below he knees, she was wearing black leather gloves and thigh high leather boots, all decorated with feathers and across her shoulders she had shoulder pads just like mine except they were black, with black feathers, she was beautiful, as she walked over to the table the bottom of her dress almost seemed to glide along behind her, she sat down right in front of me, and my heart started to beat faster.

"It's nice to meet you Nightingale." said Thorne "I'm Thorne and this is Ballista and Kookaburra."

"Nice to meet you too."

Her voice was so gentle, as she smiled I couldn't help but notice her teeth they were beautifully white, almost unnatural, and straight, like everyone else that we've interviewed we had to shake hands, as she shook my hand I felt a tingle of electricity run up my arm and into my shoulder.

"So what made you want to become a defender of the castle?" Ballista asked.

"Well it just seemed like my kind of job, I can be very determined in what I'm doing and I can be a very protective person."

"So if you were asked to do something, you'd do it?"

"Absolutely."

After Ballista asked her questions it then became my turn, suddenly I'd forgotten every single question that I was going to ask, luckily I had them written down in front of me.

"Kook, don't you have some questions?" Ballista asked me.

The only question going through my mind right now was, _"Will you marry me?"_, keep it together Kook, you're a professional, don't let yourself down, I took a deep breath to relax.

"Yes...erm...so what do you...err...what skills do you have that you think make you...er...makes you right for this job?"

"Well, like I said, I'm determined, I can be very focused on things that I've been asked to do and my vision is pretty good so I could see any attackers coming from a vast distance away."

Good news and bad news, the good news is that I think that she would be perfect for the job and with her good vision that would make her perfect for lookout duty which can mean that I'll no longer be on my own, but the bad news is that with her being on lookout duty with me, that may distract me, because to tell you the truth...I think that I may be in love with her.

I couldn't get to sleep that night, whenever I closed me eyes all I saw was Nightingale's face, her bright smile, those eyes, the way she bites her lip, those lips, oh those lips and her hair, how I wished that I could run my hand through her hair. I must have been thinking about her until midnight, now I was starting to feel sleepy, my eyelids were getting heavier and heavier and my head was now starting to tilt to one side, soon I was fast asleep.

"Kook! Kook, wake up!" I heard Thorne say the next morning.

"Huh?" I replied drowsily.

"Hurry up, we've got the interview call backs in 20 minutes."

"Chute, I forgot all about that."

I jumped up and got myself ready in double quick time, me and Thorne were almost running down the corridor.

"I don't know what's wrong with you these days Kook, you seem sort of distracted." said Thorne.

"Yeah, you could say that."

"What is it?"

"I guess it's just the thought of having some new defenders around the castle."

I didn't want to tell Thorne about my crush on Nightingale, I thought that it wasn't the right time. Everyone was pretty much ready for the second half of the interviews when we arrived, we thought yesterday morning that we should test the applicants on how they cope with some of the duties we often get, the first one was going to test them on guarding the castle, one of us was going to pose as someone trying to get into the castle and the applicants would have to try and catch us out.

The second test was going to test them on their defences, some of us were going to pose as attackers and attempt to attack the castle their role was to protect the castle and stop us from getting too close, then the final test was going to test them on lookout, one of us was going to approach the castle via the woods next door, and their job was to spot us before we got too close and sound the alarm, we had to inform everyone else that if they heard the attack alarm this morning, not to panic as it was all part of the interview.

Nightingale, Vane, Madeva and another defender going by the name of Faetal were the best out of everyone, out of the 10 that we interviewed, we only called back 8 and would pick the 4 best and announce it to them this afternoon. When the tests were over, me, Ballista and Thorne were deciding who out of the eight we were going to chose, so that afternoon we called them in one by one to give them the news, we'd already given the news to 5 of them and out of those 7 we'd picked 3 we'd chosen Vane, Madeva and Faetal, Nightingale was next, I tried my best to stay professional and to stay calm, when she entered the room my heart started to beat faster and my hands started to tremble, I quickly hid them under the table so she wouldn't notice.

"So Nightingale, how do you think you did?" Asked Ballista.

"Well, I think that I could have done a bit better with the guarding, but I thought that the defence and the lookout went quite well."

"And do you think that you may have done well enough to get the job?"

"I don't know, I thought that was down to you."

I sniggered, she's a bit of a joker, that's good, I quite like that.

"Okay, now we all thought that you did best in the lookout and the defence, and we would pretty much like to see how you would do with help and assistance with others."

"Do you mean?"

"Yes, we'd like to offer you the job."

"Oh thank you, thank you so much."

It was obvious that she was happy about this, and so was I, but the rest of the wannabe defenders weren't that happy when we told them that we'd decided to turn them down, now we had our 4 new defenders, things might finally change around here, such as, some of the duties changing or some more jobs may become available now there's more of us, Vane, Faetal, Madeva and Nightingale moved into the castle that very afternoon, the king was going to tell us the changes tomorrow morning, Vane, Faetal, Madeva and Nightingale had already been told about what happens in the mornings when we normally go to see the king for him to give us our morning duties.

The next morning I was one of the first ones there, Ballista, Gildar, Faetal and Nightingale were already there, Gildar and Ballista were giving Faetal and Nightingale some tips on defending.

"Morning." I said.

"Oh morning Kook." Ballista replied.

"Are you two ready for your first duties?" I asked Faetal and Nightingale.

"Yeah, we've been looking forward to it." Nightingale replied.

"Er...great...excellent...well...good luck."

"Are you alright Kook?" Asked Gildar.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

We were waiting a bit longer than usual as Vane and Madeva happened to get lost, but you'd expect that on someone's first day, that happened to me my first couple of days, instead of a map of the castle on the king's table, he had a long list which he was examining as we walked in.

"Your highness." we said.

"Morning everyone, and hello to the newcomers." said the king "Now there are going to be some drastic changes around here, so I think that we should start with the duties, one of those changes is that you're all going to be given a permanent duty from now on, to start with, Gildar, Ballista, Shaiden, Skabb, Crocness, Vane and Faetal you're all going to be on defense, Madeva and Knightriss, you two will be on guard, Thorne and Tinkor, you two are going to be making and repairing the weapons, and Kookaburra and Nightingale, you two will be on lookout."

Great, I was on lookout with Nightingale...oh no! I'm going to be with her all day, I don't know if I'd be able to cope with that...well...I'm not going to be with her all day, i was going to be on lookout for 45 minutes and Gildar, Vane, Knightriss, Tinkor and Shaiden were going to be on duty while Crocness, Skabb, Ballista, Thorne, Madeva and Nightingale were going to have their breakfast break, then after my 45 minutes on duty we would swap over so that we could go on our break, I thought that was pretty reasonable, but I'm still going to be with Nightingale for most of the day.

After me and Nightingale had swapped over and I'd been for my break, it was now down to business, when I got to the top of the lookout tower Nightingale was over to the left, she had her back to me, I tried not to look at her else I was sure that she'd distract me, i was about to turn to the right side of the tower when I heard her voice.

"Hi Kook." she said.

Her voice went straight through me melting my heart, my hands started to tremble and my legs turned to jelly.

"Err...hi." I stuttered.

"The others told me that you get this duty a lot is that right?"

"Yeah, you could say that, everyday I get it."

"So you're a professional then?"

"Pretty much."

I couldn't take in what was happening, she was talking to me, I couldn't think of anything else to say, so I thought that I might do what I do best, joking, maybe break the ice a bit.

"So...err...what do you think of the duty so far?" I asked.

"It's okay, I don't think that could do it on my own though, I'd get bored too easily."

"Yeah, that used to happen to me when I got this duty, but do you know what I used to do to keep me occupied?"

"No what?"

"I used to spy on the others."

"Really? What kind of things did you see?"

"Well, I once saw Gildar kissing his own reflection."

"Yeah he does seem like the kind of guy who'd do that, obsessed with how he looks."

"Yeah, he's even started a fan club for all the people who love him, members: him."

Nightingale laughed. "You're really funny."

"Thanks, they don't call me 'the joker' for nothing you know."

She laughed again, she had the cutest laugh I've ever heard. This was brilliant, finally I had someone to talk to whilst on duty, the time just flew by, as the air started to get cooler and the sky started to go a subtle shade of orange, we could tell that the day was coming to a close, we still had another hour or so until we could retire from our duties and finally go to bed, which I am relieved about as my legs and feet are throbbing like never before from being up there all day, but I couldn't wait until tomorrow when I could come back up here to be with Nightingale.


	4. Chapter 4 Nightingale

**Chapter 4 Nightingale**

Kookaburra seems like a really friendly guy, but he was acting kind of nervous today, he must have been a bit shy, I was really enjoying my time as a defender and could really get used to it, I was glad that the king had given me lookout duty as it's what I seem to be best at and it's also my favorite duty, but I was relieved when it was over for my feet were aching like they've never ached before, when I got into my nest I fell asleep almost immediately, but was awoken in the middle of the night by someone knocking on my bedroom door, clambering up half asleep, I answered to see who would want to speak to me at this time of night, stood in the doorway was the king's messenger, he seemed very upset and concerned

"Nightingale, the king would like to speak to you immediately." he said.

"What does he wish to speak to me about?"

"He wishes to speak to all of you."

This can't be good, the king wishes to speak to us at midnight, I was out of my room and down the corridor straight away just in my nightclothes, Faetal, Gildar, Skabb, Vane, Knightriss and Madeva were already there, I didn't recognise them at first, they all looked so different without their outfits, Ballista, Thorne, Shaiden, Kookaburra, Crocness and Tinkor weren't that far behind me.

"What do you expect the king wants to speak to us about?" I asked.

"Don't know. Can't be good." said Tinkor.

Quickly Gildar knocked on the door, the king invited us in and we all dashed inside the king seemed very concerned and worried about something, he was stood with his hands flat on his desk shaking his head.

"Your majesty, what's the emergency?" Asked Skabb.

"I'm afraid something terrible has happened." said the king turning towards the window. "We seem to have angered our rival kingdom, and they're planning to attack...everyone...we're at war."

War? I've only been on the job for one day and we're already going into battle, I don't even know what to do, we were going to have to spend the days leading up to the battle training, me, Madeva, Faetal and Vane will probably be needing more training than everyone else as we're the new ones.

I couldn't get back to sleep that night, I couldn't help but think about the battle, the training was going to start tomorrow morning, I was both excited but also nervous both at the same time.

The next morning I was up bright and early, earlier than we would normally get up, we went for a quick breakfast and then went for the training, while we were having breakfast we were talking about what we were going to do about this war.

"So who is it that we're up against?" I asked.

"Well, we're known as the modern medieval kingdom, we only have one enemy, the medieval modern kingdom of Splazzer City." said Thorne. "They're always trying to overtake and modernize the kingdom."

"Who'd want to change anything around here?"

"Well they would for a start." said Kookaburra laughing.

"So what are we going to do?"

"Well, Tinkor has been working through the night making some new weapons for you guys, so we can start training once Tinkor's had a little lie down." Gildar explained.

I wondered what was going to happen in the training, I had a vague idea of us maybe using dummies and targets to test our fighting skills and our aim, after a quick breakfast, we went outside into the courtyard, we weren't even out there for even a minute when Tinkor arrived with the weapons, he looked exhausted the poor love, everyone got their weapons and me, Madeva, Vane and Faetal were shown which ones were ours, we all had a sword and shield each but there was an extra weapon for each of us, me and Kookaburra both had slingshots, Ballista had a crossbow along with Gildar and Faetal, Skabb was given a club and spear, Shaiden had her samurai sword, Vane was given a bow and arrow and Madeva, Knightriss and Thorne were all going to be working the catapult that Tinkor was working on right now. Now we were armed and ready for the training to begin.


	5. Chapter 5 Faetal

**Chapter 5 Faetal**

I was rather excited about the training, I was first shown how to use the crossbow, then we could get started, me, Vane, Nightingale and Madeva were informed about how we would normally practise our fighting on the dummies before moving onto the actual fighting against each other, sort of mock fights, Nightingale seemed to struggle at some points and needed extra help, but eventually got the hang of it as did I, after 2 hours of training, we had a short break in order to get our breath back and to get a small review on how we seemed to be progressing.

"Right, everything seems to be going well." said Knightriss.

"How do you think that we're doing?" Vane asked, panting.

"Well..." Shaiden started. "You're doing very well for first timers, but you just need to focus on your aim a bit more and just remember to keep your left foot ahead of your right foot when fighting."

"Yeah, I think that I've got the hang of that now." said Nightingale.

I'd only just got my breath back when we were getting back to training, I was now moving onto the actual fighting, and was put against Gildar, he was a rather tricky person to beat.

"Keep your shield up." he said. "You keep on lowering it."

I really don't feel ready for anything like this, I've only been on the job for one day, but I'm going to do this, for his majesty the king and for the kingdom, we spent the rest of the day training and would be doing the same every day leading up to the battle, Tinkor didn't do much of the training as he had to make sure that the catapult was ready, as the day got ever closer we could see that he was starting to struggle on his own, so one day we decided to put the weapons aside and helped him to get everything just right, more hands make lighter work, that way we were sure that it would be ready in time for the battle.

The day of the battle was pretty much around the corner and we were getting in the last bit of training before relaxing so we could calm ourselves down ready for the battle, from what I've heard about Splazzer City, they seem to be pretty advanced with their weapons and strategies, there wasn't going to be just us at the battle obviously, there was also going to be a number of the kings soldiers with us, to even out the numbers.

I couldn't get to sleep that night, I had to keep on getting out of bed and walk around the room a number fo times in order to tire myself out, it worked after the 10th time, it was probably half past eleven by the time I fell asleep. When I woke up that morning, I looked at the clock, it was 8 in the morning, I wasn't due at the king's quarters until another 45 minutes, but I got up anyway and got myself ready for my first battle.

Everyone was waiting outside by the time I got there, the king was already kitted out in all of his armour, he looked so regal, powerful and not to mention unbeatable.

"So, are you all prepared?" He asked us.

"Yes your highness." said Crocness. "We've been training every day leading up to today."

"Good, because Splazzer City can be a vicious bunch.

I was now starting to get pretty scared, we quickly went to breakfast before venturing off to the battle field. We were walking for what felt like miles, when we finally arrived we were confronted by an empty field, Splazzer City hadn't arrived yet, but we weren't waiting long, slowly they started to appear, venturing over the hill towards us, their army looked much bigger than ours, but I was convinced that they were around the same size as ours, they were still for around 2 minutes, before they started to charge towards us, we stayed put, waiting for the right moment, before deciding to charge.

"FOR THE KINGDOM OF SPLATALOT!" the king bellowed.

The battle had commenced.


	6. Chapter 6 Kookaburra

**Chapter 6 Kookaburra**

As we charged across the field I could feel the wind rushing through my hair and could hear the sound of the wind whistling in my ears as well as the shouting from both us and Splazzer City, when the fighting started I was fighting like I've never fought before, all I thought was that I was doing this for the kingdom, I was getting myself into a Kookaburra frenzy, most of us were in a frenzy, Skabb was being his original barbaric self and Shaiden was almost flying across the field she was so fast

I was now battling against one of Splazzer City's soldiers, and the king was right, they are vicious, this person seemed to be really focused on the idea of beating or maybe even killing me, I hope it was just to beat me, I don't want to die yet, luckily I was much faster than him, so with a slash with my sword, a clang with the shield and another swipe with the sword and he was down in the ground, he was still, but he was breathing, I'd just knocked him out, charging across the field, fighting for the kingdom, i saw a familiar face, it was my arch enemy, one of Splazzer City's defenders, Falcon.

"Well well, look what the cat dragged in." he said getting ready to attack. "Kookaburra. What have you been bushing up on this week, singing? Dancing? Or have you just been up to nothing?"

"I'll have you know that I've been training for this battle for the past week or so. So I'd be worried if I was you." I replied getting into position.

We both lashed forward with our swords at the same time, there was a loud clash as our swords hit our shields, now I was inches away from him, I could see the look of mischief and plotting in his eyes.

"I see that your kingdom has some new defenders."

"You bet, and they're pretty powerful fighters."

"I wouldn't say powerful, but I'd say that some of them are certainly pretty. That chick in the black for starters."

"That's Nightingale and you stay away from her."

"She a friend of yours?"

I was silent, I didn't know how to answer that, but Falcon could read me like a book, he always could, as he stared at me, a smile seemed to grow on his face.

"You like her don't you?"

"So what if I do, what are you gonna do about it?"

"Well, let's just say that when I've finished with you, I've got the same thing in mind for her."

"You keep your hands off her."

"Just think, the Nightingale will soon be the Falcon's prey."

My heart started to pound, and my face was bubbling with anger, I could feel the anger running through my body, I could then hear the little Aussie in my head shout, _"Kill him!" You can't let him mess with your Sheilah!"_ I gripped my sword tighter, I have never fought with such emotion, Falcon looked almost stunned and frightened with my fighting skills, it wasn't long before I had him also to the ground, as he lay there helpless, I stood above him with my sword pointing downwards, ready to strike.

"You'd never kill me." he said.

"No I wouldn't." I replied "Just as long as you stay away from Nightingale."

Lowering my sword I backed away, I felt like I'd really made a point there, the field was still as alive as ever with the sound of fighting, we seemed to be doing well, Splazzer City were starting to back away, but it wasn't over yet. I looked to my right and Nightingale was fighting away I was really concerned for her, this was her first battle and I didn't want her to get hurt, I was almost distracted by her beauty that nearly didn't notice someone running over to me.

This soldier was a difficult one to beat, they've obviously been a soldier for a long time, I couldn't keep up with him and was pretty sure that I was going to be defeated, I was about to surrender, blocking his sword with my shield when I saw something that caught my eye and made my heart skip a beat, I saw Nightingale also struggling just as much as me, unknown to her, Falcon was neaking up behind her, brandishing his sword.

"NIGHTINGALE, LOOK OUT!" I shouted.

She didn't hear me, a swipe of my sword and the soldier was down, and he didn't get back up, I ran over to Nightingale and got in front of Falcon blocking him, before he had a chance to strike me or Nightingale, I struck him, slowly, he fell onto the ground, he took three deep breaths, exhaled and was still...I'd killed him...I rarely ever kill anyone.

"What are you doing?" Nightingale asked focussing on her fight.

"Saving your life." I replied.

"Thanks."

The battle continued for hours, we'd lost a number of soldiers, but not as many as Splazzer City, we were pretty confident that we were going to win, we every nearly lost some of our defenders, but we were free from any funerals...so far. I was fighting another soldier and seemed to be winning, he was backing away, I thought that this was going to be a quick and easy win, but I didn't see the archer behind me, he was pulling the bow back ready to shoot, aiming for my back, just as he fired, I turned to my right letting the arrow hit me in my right arm, I've never experienced pain like it.

"Agh!" I screamed.

The pain was so agonizing, I dropped my weapons collapsing to the ground, surely I was done for now.


	7. Chapter 7 Nightingale

**Chapter 7 Nightingale**

I heard Kook scream so I knew that there was something wrong, while my opponent was down I turned to where I heard his scream coming from, the scene that confronted me was Kook lying on the ground writhing in agony, the soldier near him picked up up Kook's sword. At that point I reached for my slingshot, I picked up the closest stone that I could find, loaded my weapon and aimed it at the soldiers head, as he raised the sword to strike Kook dead, I released the slingshot, the stone went flying through the air, striking the soldier in the centre of his forehead, killing him stone dead.

"Kook, are you alright?" I asked running over, as I got closer I couldn't help but notice the arrow he had in his right arm.

"Do I look alright?" Kookaburra replied, his voice shaking slightly.

I help Kook to his feet and walked him to one side away from the fight, I noticed that he was shaking slightly and I could feel his pulse beating fast, we walked over to the woods on the right side of the field, slowly and gently, I sat Kook down against a nearby tree.

"Has the pain eased at all?" I asked.

"A bit." Kook replied, his left hand clutching his right arm.

I had to get the arrow out, and the only way to do that was to yank it out with a quick sharp tug.

"I'm going to have to pull the arrow out okay?" I said.

"Err...alright."

Reaching into the pouch that I had on my belt I pulled out a clean handkerchief, ready to place over the wound.

"Okay this will hurt, so brace yourself." I warned him.

"Okay." He replied, squeezing his eyes tight, gritting his teeth and turning his head away.

The arrow was harder to get out than I thought it would be, I pulled harder and sure enough, the arrow popped out, as soon as it came out, I quickly covered the wound with the handkerchief.

"Agh!" Kook yelped

"I warned you." I replied.

To ensure that the handkerchief stayed in the same place I wrapped it around Kook's arm securing it tightly with a double knot, pulling it tight Kook let out another yelp.

"Ow."

"There is that better?" i asked.

"Much, thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Where did you learn all that?"

"I was taught first aid, you can never be too careful. By the way, thanks again for saving me."

"No problem."

"But why did you save me?"

"We're partners, and you're new, I couldn't just stand by and see you die like that. Anyway, you did the same for me."

We got up to go when Kook started to sway, not only that he looked awfully pale, I grabbed his left arm to steady him.

"What's wrong?" I asked concerned.

"I just feel a bit dizzy that's all."

"It's most probably from loss of blood, will you be alright?"

"Yeah, don't worry, I'll be fine."

"Okay."

I let go of his arm, as we walked on, he seemed to slow down, then stopping completely before fainting.

"Kook! Kook wake up! Please wake up." I said panicking

I checked his heartbeat, it was very slow, so was his pulse, he was breathing but very faintly, there was something very wrong now, come on Nightingale, what did they teach you in first aid, yes, CPR, I got Kook onto his back, his lips were parted slightly, I performed the CPR twice when soldiers were running over, grabbing my sword, I fought them off one by one, no one else had seen us so we were safe for the time being. The CPR didn't seem to be working, I was now really starting to panic.

"Come on Kook, please wake up."

Another four times and Kook finally woke up, taking in a large gasp of air he bolted upright.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I saved your life a second time." I replied.

"I meant what happened to me?"

"You fainted and your heart, pulse and breathing were starting to slow down, I had to do CPR."

"You know CPR too?"

"Yeah, you could say that I'm multi talented."

i was really glad that Kookaburra was alright, after just ten minutes, we'd won the battle, Splazzer City backed up and ran back to their kingdom, after a quick surrender, their king said and I quote, _"Congratulations Splatalot, you have beaten us, we surrender, your army and defenders are too skilled and powerful for us, we shall bother you no longer."_

When we got back to the castle, we first of all had to treat all the wounds and injuries that we'd got from the battle, Faetal, Thorne, Ballista and Vane had a few cuts on their arms and legs, Gildar had a rather bad black eye and deep cut on his right leg, and of course Skabb had a number of wounds, he had cuts on his face, arms and legs, mind i guess that's what he's used to being a barbarian, obviously there was also Kook with his arrow wound. Getting a clean piece of cloth I soaked it in water before applying it to Kook's wound to wash off the blood, before having to sew up the wound, I could tell that it hurt a fair bit due to the number of winces and cries that Kook gave.

"Ow."

"Sorry, it's the only way."

"I know, I'm just not that good with pain.

After Kook's wound was seen to, I could see to my own wounds and injuries. After working with Kook these past few days, I've come to see a few loving things about him, he's kind, caring, lovable, has a good sense of humour and he makes me smile even when he doesn't say something funny, maybe I like him, but I have to admit, he is pretty cute, I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.


	8. Chapter 8 Shaiden and Gildar

**Chapter 8 Shaiden and Gildar**

**Shaiden**

After a good rest we had all gained our energy back from the battle yesterday, all of our muscles ached, but at least we'd succeeded in keeping the kingdom safe from Splazzer City, but I was concerned about someone right now, that was Nightingale, she seemed to be sort of distracted, I was starting to get the idea that she was worried about something or someone but I couldn't figure out what it could be. That morning, I decided to speak to her about it, while me, Nightingale, Vane, Knightriss, Gildar and Tinkor were having breakfast.

"Nightingale, have you been feeling alright at all?" I asked.

"Yeah, I've been fine, why do you ask?"

"Well, you've been sort of distracted recently, and i was wondering if there was something on your mind."

"Er...no, no. I've just been thinking that's all."

"Thinking about what?"

"Nothing."

"Come on Nightingale, if something's bothering you, you can tell me, we're partners and friends aren't we?"

"Really, there's nothing wrong."

"So why have you been so distracted?"

"It's nothing to do with you, if there's something on my mind then I might not want to tell you, just back off."

Before I could apologize Nightingale stood up and left the breakfast table in a huff, now I was really concerned, she's not normally so angry, there really is something on her mind, seeing as I can't persuade Nightingale to tell me, I was going to ask the others if they knew anything.

While I was on duty I first went to ask the girls.

"Ballista, have you noticed a change in Nightingale's behaviour recently?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah, I have a bit."

"What was that."

"Well she seemed a bit distracted the other day and whenever we were talking about the boys, she'd start to go red in the cheeks."

"Have you tried speaking to her. Because I did and she just shouted at me."

"No, should I talk to her?"

"Well if you do, don't say that I spoke to you, and don't just ask her directly if there's something on her mind else she might get suspitious."

"What are you two talking about?" Crocness asked walking over to us.

"We were just talking about Nightingale, we think that there's something on her mind but she won't say anything, I explained.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, only the other day I was talking to her about something that Kookaburra told me, as soon as I mentioned him, she started twirling her hair with her fingers and went red in the face."

"You don't think that she's got a crush on him do you?"

"She might do, I'm not sure. Shall I ask her about it?"

"Maybe not directly, we should just break it in gently to her."

"Okay."

When Ballista went to talk to Nightingale, me, Crocness, Faetal, Madeva and Knightriss were talking, trying to figure out what may be on Nightingale's mind, if there was something bothering her then we could propably help her with it.

"So do any of you have any thoughts on what may be on her mind?"

"No, I don't really see her that often enough to talk to her." said Faetal.

"Well how has she been behaving recently?"

"Well...the first thing that I noticed was that she sometimes drifts off to a world of her own and whenever I mention the boys, she starts to go a subtle shade of pink." said Madeva. "Maybe she's crushing on someone."

Just then Ballista came back over.

"So? Did she say anything?" I asked.

"No, I think that she knows that we want to know."

We were about to continue our conversation and investigation when Nightingale also walked over.

"Don't stop talking." she said "I know that you're talking about me, and I want to know why."

"Alright, I guess that you should know." I replied. "We just wanted to know if there was anything bothering you, because you've been acting strangely lately and we thought that there may be something on your mind."

"Well if it'll get you off my back, I might as well tell you."

She looked over at the boys.

"How would you guys describe Kookaburra?"

"Err...annoying, irritating, never shuts up, gets on your nerves..." I started.

"No, I mean nice ways to describe him."

"Erm...I don't know."

"Well, I'd say that he's kind, caring, loveable, funny, a great friend...cute."

"I think that someone's in love." said Madeva.

"No, there can't be any of that." Knightriss interuppted "Don't you remember the rules Nightingale? The king told you that one of the rules was that defenders cannot be in relationships, you swore that you would abide to all of the rules."

"Oh, yeah, you're right."

I've never seen Nightingale look so sad, I have to admit, it is a bit of a stupid rule. Nightingale didn't say anything else for the rest of that conversation, to tell you the truth, I think that the king should abolish that rule, I mean, what's the point of having a rule if it breaks peoples hearts.

**Gildar**

Now that Splazzer City weren't going to bother us anymore, things were a heck of a lot calmer, although, they were a bit upset with Kook for killing Falcon, and speaking of Kookaburra, he has changed rather drastically over the past week or so.

"Kook are you okay?" I asked.

"Err... yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"It's just that you seem slightly distracted."

"Oh, well...it's nothing."

"I don't believe you."

"Well what do you believe?"

"I believe that there's something on your mind, and you don't want to share, if there's something bothering you Kook, you can tell us, we could be able to help."

"Well you won't be able to help with this."

"What is it?"

"I'm not saying."

"It'll save you plenty of time mate if you did tell us."

"Well...alright, alright...you know Nightingale?"

"Yeah."

"Well...she's pretty hot wouldn't you say?"

"Erm...I wouldn't say that she's hot, but yeah, she's pretty good looking, so what's on your mind?"

"I've just told you."

"Nightingale!"

"Shh, she'll hear you."

"Well if you like her, just go and tell her."

"No, I can't."

"Chicken."

"No, I'm a Kookaburra."

I was happy to see that Kook was still joking around, but there was something about his crush on Nightingale that got me worrying, so when Kook left, I asked the others.

"Guys, we've got a bit of a problem." I said

"What?"

"Kookaburra is crushing on Nightingale."

"Dude, seriously." said Vane.

"Really, he is. I was just thinking, is there a rule about defenders and relationships?"

"Yeah, I think there is." said Skabb. "The king said that defenders can't be in relationships."

"Well I think that we should ask the king about it, who's going to ask him?"

None of us stepped forward.

"Fine, I might as well ask him." I said.

I didn't really want to ask the king about it, because if this rule is absolute then it'll no dought break Kook's heart, and I don't want to be responsible for that. I was shaking slightly as I approached the kings quarters, slowly, I raised my arm and knocked on the door.

"Enter."


	9. Chapter 9 Kookaburra

**Chapter 9 Kookaburra**

I actually felt loads better now that I've told the others about my crush on Nightingale, I didn't want them to tell her, I decided that I was going to tell her myself. That night I found it hard to get to sleep, I couldn't get Nightingale out of my mind, I decided that I was going to tell her my feelings tomorrow.

The next time I opened my eyes, there was daylight bursting through my bedroom window, I got up and had a look outside, the sun was shining in a clear blue sky, there wasn't a cloud in sight. I looked down into the kingdom, the soldiers were getting ready to stop their night shifts. Looking back up I noticed someone walking around in the bedroom opposite me, as my eyes came into focus, I recognised them, it was Nightingale, I had no idea that she was in the room opposite mine.

As I watch, she placed a small bowl of water and a sponge on the dresser, _"I hope that she's just washing her face."_ I thought, no, she unfastened one strap on her nightgown, my hands were trembling and my heart was pounding, she unfastened the other and my legs went weak, she went to remove her nightgown, but I turned away, phew, that was close, maybe a bit too close, to take my mind off what had happened, I got ready for the day ahead.

I was the first person to arrive at the kings quarters but the others weren't that far behind, Nightingale arrived after Skabb and Faetal.

"Morning." She said.

"Morning." Faetal replied.

Nightingale then turned to me and smiled.

"Morning Kook."

"Er, y-yeah morning." I stammered, my voice was slightly higher than it normally is.

"You alright Kook?" Skabb asked.

"Er, yeah, never felt better." I answered clearing my throat.

By the time the others had arrived, I'd finally calmed down. When we walked into the room, the king was once again sat at his desk but there was something different, it wasn't obvious, but I could feel that there was something different in the atmosphere.

"Your highness." We said.

"Morning everyone, I've got something that I need to run past all of you. It's the rules as I think that some of you may have forgotten what some of those rules are."

The king went through every single rule with detail refreshing our memories, but my almost stopped when he mentioned the rule about defenders not being able to be in relationships, my heart cracked, I'd forgotten all about that.

"You may all go now, except for Kookaburra, I'd like a word with you."

Strewth, this can't be good. When everyone else had left the room, I closed the doors, what would the king want to talk to me about?

"Take a seat Kook."

Without a word, I sat down in the chair opposite the kings desk.

"Kookaburra, I'm very concerned."

This really can't be good, he used my full name.

The king continued. "You are fully aware of the rules aren't you?"

"Yes sire."

"Well, a little birdie came to see me the other day and told me that you've got a crush."

I'm now caught between a rock and a hard place, I can't tell the king the truth else he'll get mad, and I can't lie to him, else he'll get mad, the king could see that I was nervous, so in his way he attempted to calm me down.

"Don't worry Kook, there's no need to be nervous, I won't get mad."

I decided to tell the truth. "Yes sire, I do have a crush."

"I take it that it's one of the girls here."

I nodded.

"Would you mind telling me who?"

"Err...Nightingale."

The king sighed. "I thought that you fully understood the rules Kook, you know that defenders can't be in relationships, and to be honest, if you don't think that you'll be able with that, then we might have to let you go."

"Are you firing me?"

"No, but if you really do like Nightingale and don't think that you could live not being with her, then it would probably be best if you left."

"No, no, I can live with it sire, please, I love this job."

"Okay, if you're sure."

"Yes, absolutely sure."

I really wasn't sure about it, I really do love Nightingale but if I really do love her, then I'll have to leave this job, I could feel the tears filling my eyes, I tried not to blink too much as i was sure that the tears would start to fall.

"Okay, you may go now."

The minute I got outside, I broke down into floods of tears. After breakfast, I went to the lookout tower, Nightingale was still up there, she noticed me as soon as I arrived.

"Hi." she said smiling.

"Yeah hi." I replied.

"What did the king say?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Keep it together Kook, she's just a girl, plenty more birds in the sky.

"Are you crying Kook?" Nightingale asked.

"No, no, I'm fine..." I thought that now would be the best time for me to tell Nightingale how I feel for her. "Erm...Nightingale, there's something that I need to tell you, it's been on my mind for a while and it's rather important."

"Well it'll have to wait."

Nightingale reached for the horn to sound the attack alarm, I looked over at the horizon and there was a large army of attackers heading for the castle, we both raced down the stairs, grabbed our weapons and went to help the others defend.

By the time that we got to the castle walls the attackers were almost here, I grabbed my slingshot and aimed, releasing, the stone went flying hitting someone on the head, knocking them off balance, strike! As I hid behind the wall to load my weapon again, I looked to my left, both Vane and Ballista were working well together as a team, Ballista was giving Vane tips on who to aim for, and when to shoot the arrows, it was good to see that everyone was working together and helping each other.

I turned back to what I was doing, loading up my slingshot, I aimed again, this time striking two attackers down, I'm on fire today. Taking cover again, I had another look around, Nightingale was also taking cover, as she was loading her weapon again, she turned to look at me, I gave her a small smile and a thumbs up, we both got back up to fire, this time I missed, out of the corner of my eye, I saw an archer aiming for me, before they had a chance to fire, I took cover, as soon as I did, the arrow went flying past me, I looked over my shoulder and there was another archer aiming for someone else, they shot but I saw the arrow fly over our heads.

I loaded my weapon again and was about to turn and fire when I saw Nightingale backing up, something had to be wrong as she seemed to be in pain and was clutching her right side.

"Nightingale, are you alright?" I shouted.

She didn't reply, she dropped her slingshot and started to stumble, she turned towards us, and that was when I saw it, she had an arrow in her right side, at that point I also dropped my slingshot and ran over.

"NIGHTINGALE!"

The others were turning around to see what all the noise was about. Nightingale was incredibly unstable when I got to her, i was by her side keeping her steady, dodging the arrows and stones we went to one side, making sure that she was steady, I let go of her arm.

"Come on Nightingale, we need to get you somewhere safe."

"No, just leave me here, I'll be fine."

"Nightingale, you've just been hit with an arrow, don't go telling me that you're fine."

She looked very pale and dizzy, after swaying for a while, she staggered over to the left, stumbled and eventually fainted, landing in my arms.


	10. Chapter 10 Thorne

**Chapter 10 Thorne**

We continued fighting while Kook carried Nightingale inside. When the fighting was over, we went to see how Nightingale was doing, she was now awake, but she was weak and very pale.

"How are you feeling Nightingale?" Asked Ballista.

"Not good."

I went outside, Kookaburra was stood by the doorway, looking very concerned.

"You can come I if you want Kook." I said.

"No, I can't see Nightingale like that."

"Okay."

I went back inside, Shaiden was sat next to Nightingale mopping her brow, we had to get the arrow out, but first we had to find out whether the arrow had hit any of her vital organs.

"It's okay sis, I'll take over from here." I said.

"Alright."

Shaiden then stood up and walked over to the others to inform them on how Nightingale was doing.

"Okay Nightingale, we're going to have to take this arrow out, are you alright with that right now?"

"Yeah."

"But first, I need you to answer me a few things, first, on a scale of one to ten how bad is the pain?"

"Erm...5, it was 10 when it hit me."

I placed my hand close to the wound.

"Now, I'm going to push near the wound, and I want you to tell me on a scale of one to ten how much it hurts."

"Is this all necessary?"

"Yes, this is to determine whether the arrow has hit any vital organs."

"Okay."

I pushed down gently and released, Nightingale winced slightly with the pain.

"What would you rate that?"

"Err...4."

I move my hand closer to the wound.

"And what about now?"

I pushed down again.

"Agh...7"

"I think that you're safe, if you'd said 8 or 9 then it might have hit your organs, if it had then it would have been much more serious."

"How serious?"

"Well, let's just say it would have resulted with death."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

I turned back to the arrow and grabbed hold ready to yank it out. "I'm going to pull the arrow out now okay?"

"Okay."

I took a deep breath and the arrow came out with one quick easy motion, when it was out I grabbed the cloth behind me and placed it over the wound.

"AGH!" Nightingale screamed.

"Faetal, could you hold this in place for me please?"

"Okay."

Faetal quickly ran over and took over from me, holding the cloth in place while I went to get a bandage.

"Tell me if she starts to get any worse."

"Okay."

I turned around and went to get a bandage and a needle and thread to sew up the wound.

"Thorne, I think that she's getting worse." Faetal shouted.

I ran back over and Faetal was right, Nightingale was getting worse, her face was almost white, her brow was wet with sweat and her pulse was speeding up, I was sure that she was going to faint.

"Nightingale, Nightingale, can you hear me?" I said. She didn't respond.

"Is she alright?" Faetal asked.

"Yeah, she's just passed out."

While Nightingale was out cold, we stitched up the wound and wrapped the bandage around her waist, while we were waiting for Nightingale to come back round, I went back outside to Kook to give him the news so far.

"Well? How is she?" He asked.

"She's not really with us at the moment."

"She's dead?"

"No, she's unconscious."

"Well why didn't you say that?"

"I'll let you know when she comes round."

"Okay, thanks mate."

"Thorne!" Faetal shouted.

I dashed back inside.

"What is it?"

"I think that she's coming back round."

"Nightingale? Nightingale, can you hear me?"

Slowly, her eyes began to open.

"What happened?" She asked, he voice was quiet, almost a whisper.

"You just fainted that's all."

"I feel really sore."

"That'll be the stitches, we've stitched up the wound."

"Thanks Thorne."

"It's Kook that you should be thanking, he was the one who saw you, the one who caught you the first time that you fainted."

"Where is Kook anyway?"

"He's outside, I'll go and get him."

When I went back to Kook he was pacing up and down anxiously.

"Kook, you alright?"

"Never mind me, is Nightingale alright?"

"Yeah, she's fine, she's awake now if you'd like to come and see her."

"Okay."

When Kook walked into the room, Nightingale's face lit up with a large bright smile."

"Hi Kook."

"Hey Nightingale, how are you feeling?"

"Sore."

"Now you know how I felt when you removed that arrow from my arm."

Nightingale laughed and winced with the pain.

"Try not to use your stomach muscles too much, that's what's causing the pain." I said.

She turned back to Kook.

"You said that you wanted to tell me something, what is it?"

"I don't think that now's the best time."

At the end of the day we took Nightingale up to her room and helped her into her nest, she'd hopefully be as right as rain in the morning, for someone who just got hit by an arrow, she was terribly brave, most people would be trembling, sweating and needing someone to hold their hand, and would want someone to be with them the whole time, I wish that more people were like Nightingale.


	11. Chapter 11 Nightingale

**Chapter 11 Nightingale**

The next day I was still rather sore and and very tender around my waist, I went to sit up, it was very difficult with the amount of pain, but eventually, gritting my teeth, I fought against the pain and got up and out of my nest, I looked out of my bedroom window, it was a grey, miserable day, dark grey clouds, it was coming to the end of summer so the days weren't as warm as they were, I looked forward, straight ahead of me I saw Kookaburra also looking out of his bedroom, I had no idea that his room was opposite mine, I gave him a little wave and he waved back.

When I went down to breakfast, Ballista, Gildar, Thorne, Skabb and Vane we already there.

"Morning." I said sitting down.

"Morning. How are you feeling?" Ballista asked.

"A bit sore and very tender around the waist."

"By the way, I told the king what happened and he's given you a week off to recover." said Thorne.

"A week? What about Kook? Is he going to be okay with this?"

"We've already asked him and he says that he's fine with it."

A week? What could I do to keep me occupied for a week? I'm not sure that I could, but maybe if I start to feel better before the week is up then the king could let me come back to work.

After 4 days I started to feel loads better, so one morning before breakfast I stayed behind to speak to the king.

"So what did you want to speak to me about Nightingale?"

"Well your highness, I've had four days off the job so far, and I'm already feeling loads better and I was wondering if it would be alright if I started work again."

"Do you think that you're well enough?"

"Yes, I do."

"Okay, if you think that you're ready to work again then I'm going to let you back on the job."

"Thank you sire."

Thank goodness, I'm back on the job, I felt much happier now I wasn't on temporary leave, despite I was given a week off, it was the most miserable week of my life, I missed spending my days with Kook, even though he still doesn't know how I feel about him, he's going to be really surprise when I turn up.

When I got to the top of the lookout tower Kook was over on the right side of the tower, I walked over to him and stood by his left side, he had no idea that I was there, I cleared my throat to get his attention.

"Nightingale, what are you doing here?" he asked surprised, I knew that he'd be surprised.

"I was feeling much better so I asked the king if I could come back to work early, he said yes."

"Are you sure that you don't need another day or so, you look a bit tired."

"Not as tired as you, you go and have a little lie down, you look like you could do with a rest.2

"No, don't worry about me, I'm fine."

"Kook, you've been up here all morning, if I was you I would be begging for some relaxation."

"Well...now that you mention it, I am feeling a bit knackered."

I watched as Kook turned around and left the lookout tower, I was desperate to tell him how I felt about him, but there was some problems, first, he's a Kookaburra and I'm a Nightingale, mind, that never stopped my parents, my mum is a Nightingale, it's her that I inherited my name and voice from, but my dad is a crow, it's him that I inherited my looks from, second, Kook might not like me anyway and third, defenders can't be in relationships anyway...come on Nightingale, you'll never know unless you try, when he comes back up just tell him how you feel.

He was only gone for around 55 minutes, when I heard him walking up the steps I started to shake, I don't know it I can do this, I've never told a guy that I like him before, I've had a crush on a number of guys, but not like this, come on Nightingale you can do this, he's just the one guy.

"You feeling better now?" I asked.

"Yeah, much better."

Now was my chance, I have to tell him, I decided to break it in gently and build up to it, slowly, I walked over to Kook standing close to him.

"It's a beautiful view isn't it?" I asked.

"Yeah, very nice."

"I love coming up here first thing in the morning and last thing at night, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"It's pretty romantic wouldn't you say?"

"Err...yeah...I guess."

What am I doing? I can't do this, I need to think about how I'm going to tell him, and this isn't the way, I turned around and walked back over to the left side of the tower.

"Were you trying to tell me something?" Kook asked me.

"What?"

"You were talking about the beautiful view and how romantic it is, it's just that it made me think that you were trying to tell me something."

"Err...no, I was just saying that the view's very beautiful from up here and how romantic the view is at this time of day."

"Oh okay."

That was so embarrassing, I was so close to telling Kook how I feel about him, I chickened out and he nearly figured out what I was trying to say, that;s not how I wanted it to happen, I wanted to tell him so badly, but I didn't know hoe, we didn't speak much for the remainder of the day, I was relieved when we could leave our duties and go to bed.

I walked into my room and was about to get ready for bed when I saw something tucked behind the twigs of my nest, it was some sort of note.

_"Dear Nightingale, meet me at the top of the lookout tower at midnight, sincerely your secret admirer."_ It said.

Secret admirer? I never knew that I had a secret admirer, I couldn't stop thinking about it, who could my secret admirer be, it has to be one of the guys, no one else would have been able to get into the castle, not with Knightriss and Madeva on the gates.

When midnight came round, I got my cloak on and sneaked out of my room, there were soldiers still on the corridors on their night shifts, if they spotted me then it wouldn't be good, but I'm sure that I would have been able to come up with some excuse.

I was starting to get the hang of sneaking around the castle, hiding from the soldiers, I shoudln't really get used to this. I approached the corridor leading to the kings bedroom, I had to go down there to get to the lookout tower, I was suddenly faced with a problem, there were two soldiers stood outside the kings room, I had to distract them, i reached for my slingshot and looked around me for a stone big enough to knock something over, carefully and quietly, I loaded the slingshot and aimed it at a metal candle holder, the candle wasn't lit so there was no risk of a fire, I looked over my shoulder to check that there wasn't anyone behind me, there wasn't so I fired the stone, it hit the candle holder, it wobbled ferociously before toppling over, there was a loud clang sound as it hit the stone floor.

"Who's there?" I heard one of the soldiers shout.

I hid behind the wall as they ran over, I could hear them brandish their swords and their hard shoes on the floor as they ran past, as the sound of their footsteps faded, I made my escape, before I got to the end of the corridor there were some other soldiers coming the other way, I panicked, where could I go now, I looked to my right and there was a gap between the wall and a pillar that was just wide enough for me to fit between, it was a tight squeeze but it was enough, I waited for the soldiers to go round the corner before I carried on.

I eventually made it to the lookout tower, I could see someone standing at the top, my secret admirer, I ran over to the stairs, it took a while to get to the top and I was out of breath when I got there, but I gained all my breath back when I saw my secret admirer in front of me, they had their back to me and their cloak hood up so I couldn't see who it was, I put my cloak hood down and walked over to them.

"So." I said twirling my fingers. "You're my secret admirer?"

"Yep." They replied.

"How long have you been my admirer for?"

"Since the day that you came for your interview."

"So you're one of the other defenders then?"

"Yeah."

"Have you forgotten that defenders can't be in relationships?"

"No, I was reminded by the king recently."

I was starting to recognise their voice, they had a slight accent, that accent was an Australian accent and it was pretty strong, there's only one person I know who had an Australian accent that strong, someone who I work with every day.

"Kook, is that you?"

I reached over and removed their hood, it was Kook, I was over the moon with the fact that he was my secret admirer, this was a much better was of confessing my feelings for him too.

"Is this a joke?"

"No, I may be a joker, but this time I'm serious."

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

"I just didn't know how to tell you, and I thought that this was the most romantic way to do it, this is the best view in the castle anyway, you said so yourself."

"True."

Kook had said to me that he's my admirer so I no longer have to worry whether he likes me or not when I tell him how i feel.

"Kook, I really like you too." I blurted, as soon as the words left my mouth I let out a sigh of relief. "I've wanted to say that for a long time."

"Well why didn't you?"

"I just didn't know how to."

Kook smiled, it was a small crooked smile almost and embarrassed smile, and he wasn't the only one, I looked down and to the left when I could feel my cheeks burning even though it was a cold night. I was thinking about the situation when I looked up to the sky, there were thousands of tiny stars decorating the midnight sky, and the bright silver moon shining right ahead of us.

"It's so beautiful." I said.

"Like you." Kook replied. "You know before you got here, I was matching up every star with a reason why I like you...I ran out of stars."

I turned back towards Kook, he cupped me under the chin lifting my face up, I raised my left hand up and ran it gently through Kook's soft green hair, he began to lean forward before kissing me gently on the lips, I sighed with happiness, I wrapped my arms round his neck and he wrapped his around my waist as he kissed me again, out of all the days that I have been on this job, this has got to be the best day so far.

"We'll have to keep all of this a secret." said Kook stroking my face.

"Are you sure that we'll be able to manage? It's normally hard to keep secrets around here.2

Me and Kook were now ever so happy that we've revealed our feelings, but I've got a feeling deep down that this relationship is going to be filled with trouble.


	12. Chapter 12 Skabb

**Chapter 12 Skabb**

The days were getting and shorter as summer came to an end and Autumn came around and it was now a vital time for the kingdom, all of the crops had been harvested from the castle gardens and it had come to that time when some of us were sent into the woods to collect things for the winter, me, Ballista and Vane were sent out to do the hunting while Nightingale was sent to collect some different berries and nuts for the castle kitchens.

Ballista got her crossbow, Vane got his bow and arrows and I got my club and spear before we ventured out into the woods, we were out there first thing in the morning, so it was rather dark. After we'd been out there for 2 hours, we hadn't had any luck, our legs were aching and our feet were throbbing so we decided to rest under an oak tree nearby.

"I'm exhausted." said Vane sliding down the trunk of the tree.

"Me too." Ballista replied.

"I wonder how Nightingale's getting on."

"Better than us, that's for sure."

"Obviously, she just needs to collect some different varieties of berries, fruits and nuts."

I was about to sit down with Vane and Ballista when I was sure that I heard some rustling coming from the right of us.

"Did you guys hear that?" I asked.

"Hear what?" Ballista replied, putting her crossbow down.

"I could have sworn that I heard some rustling coming from over here."

I stood up and walked over to where I heard the rustling coming from.

"Skabb, dude, just relax." said Vane.

Again I was about to sit down when I was absolutely sure and certain that I heard the sound of a twig snapped in half, I reached for my spear.

"You must have heard that." I said.

"Yeah, I did." Ballista replied picking up her crossbow.

"It's coming from over there." said Vane pointing to the left bushes.

We got prepared for whatever might have been in those bushes, the noises were getting louder and louder as it got closer, just before it emerged we prepared our weapons, I could see that Vane was slightly trembling, the bush started shaking before the creature emerged, I raised my spear, Ballista aimed her crossbow and Vane pulled his bow back, then we realised what or to be honest, who it was, it was Nightingale.

"Whoa, whoa, guys it's me." she said in shock raising her hands

"Sorry Nightingale, we thought that you were some kind of creature." Ballista explained. "How are you getting on?"

"Pretty good, what about you?"

"No luck so far."

"Oh, well I'm sure you'll get something sure enough."

"I hope so."

"Well, I better get going, I don't want to get in your way. I'll see you all back at the castle."

"Okay."

Nightingale then walked away from us to the right of the woods, I watched her as she walked away.

"You know, i actually think that Nightingale is very good looking." I said.

"What?" Ballista asked startled.

"Dude, you don't have a crush on her do you?" Vane added.

"What, no. I was just saying, I can see what Kook sees in her now."

"Hang on." said Ballista. "Are you saying that Kookaburra has a crush on Nightingale."

"Yeah, why is there something wrong?"

"Well, yes and no, obviously yes because he can't be with her anyway because of the rules and no because Nightingale also has a crush on Kook."

"Really."

"Yeah, she told me and the girls a while ago."

"That must have been what the king spoke to Kook about a while back."

"Shall we tell them?"

"Nightingale and Kook?"

"Yeah, I think that they should know."

"Yeah, but if we tell them it might make them feel upset because as you said they can't be together anyway."

"But what about the others? Should they be informed?"

"Maybe."

This was a big problem, Nightingale fancies Kook and Kook fancies Nightingale, I know that it's mean but it really is for the best that they don't know about this, if they did it could lead to loads of problems such as their hearts breaking seeing as they can't do anything about it, and this could also lead them loosing their jobs or them quitting.

I soon forgot about it when the hunting got into full swing, we'd tracked down the animals and were approaching silently, they had no idea that we were there...at the moment. I stepped forward onto the stick, it snapped under my weight and they went running off into the woods.

"Skabb you clumsy oaf."

"Sorry."

We ventured further into the woods, I was leading us with my spear pointed forward, Ballista was behind me and Vane was starting to lag behind.

"Vane come on. This isn't the right time for a rest." Ballista whispered.

"I know, I just thought that I heard something." Vane replied.

"Like what?"

"Like a rustling sound."

"It's probably a bird or something."

"Or it could be Nightingale again."

We continued to walk when we heard a sound that we'd never heard the time that we'd spent out here, it was the sound of some singing, it was beautiful, it got me thinking about what creature that sound could be coming from, as we continued to walk on further and further into the woods, the singing started to get louder and louder, it started to sound almost human, we followed the singing to a clearing in the bushes, we slowly peeped over the top of the bushes in front of us, the scene that confronted us was Nightingale again, living up to her name, she was dancing around, singing as well as collecting berries, she had the most beautiful singing voice that I'd ever heard, now I know why she's called Nightingale. She was rather startled when she spun around and saw us behind the bushes.

"Are you guys following me?" she asked.

"We were going to ask you the same thing." I replied. "We never knew that you could sing like that."

"Well you must have got a slight clue, I am a Nightingale after all."

"True."

We were talking for another 5 minutes before returning to the task in hand, Nightingale went back to the castle while me, Ballista and Vane were left in the woods trying to catch something, we're starting to reach that stage where we don't care what it is, just as long as we caught something.

We did actually go back to the castle with a few catches, they weren't big, but they were enough. When we'd taken the stock to the kitchens ready for what winter was going to have in store for us, we spent the rest of the day relaxing and catching up on what's been happening while we'd been in the woods, Nightingale and Kookaburra weren't with us at the moment so we thought that now would be the best time to bring up the subject we were talking about in the woods.

"Guys, you know that Kook has a crush on Nightingale right?" I said.

"Yeah."

"Well Ballista told me and Vane in the woods while we were hunting that Nightingale also has a crush on Kook."

"You're not kidding?"

"No really, I'm serious."

"Should we tell Kook?"

"That's what we thought earlier, but think about this for a second. If we tell Kook that Nightingale also has a crush on him, that'll most likely make him upset, because we think that the king has told him that he and Nightingale can't be in a relationship."

"Oh I see, and if he knows that Nightingale has a crush on him, it'll be much harder for him to stay calm knowing that she has the same feelings."

"Exactly, so don't go telling him any of this."

As Kook walked over to where we were sitting, we instantly stopped the conversation.

"What are you guys talking about?" He asked.

"Nothing important."

"Are you talking about me?"

"No."

I wanted to tell Kook the truth but like I said to the others, it may be best that he doesn't know, along with Nightingale.

I found it hard to sleep with this situation on my mind, look on the bright side Skabb, it'll be Christmas soon and your family is going to be visiting, that's the way it's always been in Splatalot.


	13. Chapter 13 Kookaburra

**Chapter 13 Kookaburra**

The days were getting colder and colder, there was even a touch of frost one day, before we knew it winter had arrived and we were having to wear our cloaks outside during day as well as at night to keep ourselves warm, one morning, I woke up and looked out of my window to find a dusting of snow on the ground, I was so excited, we never get snow in Australia, I got out of my nest, got dressed, grabbed my cloak and dashed towards the kings quarters, Nightingale was already there.

"Morning." she said smiling.

"Morning."

Making sure that no one was behind me, I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, she smiled and started to go red in the cheeks, looking again, I kissed her again, this time on the lips, we started to get lost in the moment, when I heard someone coming down the corridor, we jumped to attention and stepped away from each other, Gildar then came round the corner.

"Morning." he said cheerfully.

"Morning." Me and Nightingale replied.

"Beautiful day isn't it?"

"Yeah. Cold though."

Even the king was in his warm clothes, and he was inside, we lined up, bowed and were ready for any announcements that the king was going to give us.

"Morning everyone." he said "Obviously you've all seen the snow outside and all wrapped up warm, I just thought that you should all know that it's rather slippery out there, one of the soldiers came up to me this morning from the night shift and told me that there is a vast amount of ice under that snow."

It was a good thing that the king had warned us about the ice, as I can be rather clumsy at times, and don't find it that difficult to slip on anything as any of the other will tell you with that time I accidentally slipped during defending.

After we'd all had breakfast, I went to the top of the lookout tower where Nightingale was waiting for me, I could feel a smile growing on my face as I walked up the stairs, getting closer and closer to where I so wanted to be. The second I got to the top of the stairs, Nightingale ran over to me and threw her arms around my neck.

"I love spending time with you Kook."

"And I you."

We didn't spend the whole time on lookout being soppy and romantic, saying how much we like each other and how much we enjoy being together, we did some actual work, around an hour and a half into the duty, Nightingale turned to me.

"Are you cold? I'm cold." she asked smiling.

"Yeah, I am a bit."

"I could do with warming up."

"Yeah, I could see why." I suddenly realised what she was trying to say. "Come here then."

She smiled again as she walked over and brought her body close to mine, I could feel the heat from her body and her heart beating faster, I kissed her gently on the top of her head.

"I feel so safe when I'm in your arms." she said smiling.

I smiled, no girl has ever been like this with me before, this was all a wonderful way of getting warm, but I could think of a much better and funnier was, when Nightingale was relaxed, I reached down and tickled her on her waist.

She laughed. "Stop it."

But I continued, she started wriggling in my arms as she attempted to get away, her laughs were getting harder and louder.

"Seriously Kook stop it, I'm going to slip."

Before I had a chance to stop, Nightingale slipped on the ice taking me with her, I ended up collapsing on top of her, neither of us were hurt and we both ended up laughing and rolling around in the snow, once we'd calmed down, I looked into Nightingale's eyes, they were their usual light shade of brown, with tears of laughter forming in the corners, she smiled as I placed my right hand on the left side of her face, pulled her towards me and kissed her again. Once out lips unlocked I stood up and helped Nightingale to her feet.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, I always am with you."

I smiled. "I really don't know what I did good to deserve you babe."

"You were just yourself, that's good enough."

I wrapped my arms around Nightingale's waist and lifted her up spinning around in a romantic fashion, she giggled as I swept her off her feet, when I put her down she was still giggling.

"Was I very heavy?" She asked.

"No more than a dried leaf." I replied winking.

She giggled again. We were cuddling and holding hands throughout the day as well as working, when the day was up the sky went subtle shades of orange and red, red sky at night, shepherds delight.

Everyone else had gone to their rooms, so me and Nightingale were able to walk down the corridor without any interruptions, we arrived at my bedroom door.

"Goodnight then." I said taking her hand.

"Goodnight."

She kissed me on the cheek before she turned around to talk to me.

"By the way, there's something that you should know."

"Okay, what is it?"

"It's my mum and dad, when they come to visit for Christmas, be careful with what you say around my dad, as he can be a protective of me."

"Okay, logged."

"I'm serious Kook, be careful."

"Don't worry babe, I'll be fine.

To calm her down I have her a quick kiss on the lips, she blew me another kiss before she disappeared behind the corner. I don't know why Nightingale's so concerned about her dad, but i was concerned about my parents, no doubt that my mum would embarrass me, maybe say something personal or get out a painting of me as a baby...who am I kidding, all mums do that.

As Christmas got closer and closer, our families were starting to arrive, my mum and dad had been here for a couple of days, we hadn't been given any days off since they arrived and I was desperate to introduce them to Nightingale, after 3 days we were finally given a day off, I walked down the corridor and mum and dad were already there.

"There you are Kook love." said mum. "We were wondering where you where."

She walked over to me and kissed me on the cheek.

"Mum, get off, I'm not a chick anymore."

"Where's this sheila of yours that you've told us about?" my dad asked.

"She won't be long."

Nightingale was talking to her mum and dad at the time, but she wasn't that long, after 10 minutes she walked down the corridor, her dress was floating along with her, and her hair bouncing on her head as she walked, it reminded me of the first day that I met her, she smiled as she looked at me.

"Mum, dad, I'd like you to meet Nightingale."

"Nice to meet you Nightingale." said mum shaking Nightingale's hand. "Our little Kooky has told us all about you in his letters back home."

"Mum! Don't call me Kooky, you called me that when I was little and I'm obviously not little anymore."

"True, you should have seen him as a little chick Nightingale, he was gorgeous."

I had a dreading feeling that I knew what was coming up next, mum reached into her left pocket and pulled out a painting of me as a baby.

"Oh mum, no!"

Mum showed Nightingale the painting anyway.

"Aw, Kook you were really cute when you were little."

"Do you think so?"

I went to look at the painting, it was so humiliating, I was about 1 year old, I didn't have as much hair as i do now, it just looked like a little tuft of green hair, I had a little round face and podgy little arms and legs, it's my least favorite picture.

"Mum, did you have to show that one?" I asked going red.

"But you look lovely in this painting."

I knew that my mum was going to go and do something like this, it's so like her, Nightingale didn't seem to mind though, she promised afterwards not to mention what had happened, it was then Nightingale's turn to introduce me to her parents.


	14. Chapter 14 Nightingale

**Chapter 14 Nightingale**

Kook's mum and dad seemed like really nice people, I felt sorry for Kook though, I know what it's like for your mum to embarrass you, and my mum does it all the time. I was worried about introducing Kook to my mum and dad, especially my dad, some girls might say that their dads are a bit protective of them, but my dad's more like a body guard. My mum and dad were both stood talking when we walked over.

"Mum, dad, I'd like you to meet Kookaburra." I said.

"Oh hello Kookaburra, Nightingale's told us all about you. " said mum.

"It's nice to meet you too Mrs. Nightingale."

My dad was stood there saying nothing, it was almost like he was judging Kook before he'd even said a word to him.

"Dad, aren't you going to say anything?" I asked him.

"Alright Kook?" He said in his strong broad Yorkshire accent.

When you look at my mum and dad you can definitely see a difference looks wise, my mum has feathers of many different shades of brown, whereas my dad, his feathers are jet black, and also, my mum has a wonderful singing voice, like me, but again my dad is the complete opposite, I was rather worried about what my dad would do to Kook if he doesn't like him, this is why I don't normally do so well with boyfriends.

"Dad please be nice."

"Yeah I'll be nice, as long as there's no funny business alright?"

"Oh by the way, your sister said that she won't be able to make it here for Christmas, she's a bit busy with a few job interviews." my mum interrupted.

"How many this time?"

"Four. Come over here and I'll tell you all about it."

Me and mum went to one side so she could tell me about my sisters search for a job, leaving my dad and Kookaburra on their own, that would be the perfect time for dad to get to know Kook a bit better.

"So, you're dating my daughter then?" he asked.

"Yes sir." Kook replied.

"Just answer me this, do you think that you'll be able t'look after 'er?"

"Yeah."

"Well just bare this in mind, she's been out with a couple o' lads before, and I know about fellas, so I don't want you to go breaking 'er 'eart."

"You don't really know us sir, we both really love each other."

"I'm sure you do, but what abou' a year from now? Do you really think that you love my daughter that much that you'd stay with 'er all that time? She's 'ad 'er 'eart broken before, and I don't want summat like that coming from you, else you'll 'ave me to answer to, is that clear?"

"Err...y-yes sir."

I had no concept of this little conversation that was going on between Kook and my dad, but I had a feeling that something was up with the way that Kook was acting around my dad, he seemed to be rather frightened.

That evening to get away from everyone else, me and Kook went somewhere quiet so we could have some time to ourselves, we were on the corridor that leads to Kook's room.

"I'm really sorry about my dad." I said.

"It's alright, we all have a parent who can be slightly protective."

"Protective? He's more like a body guard. This is why all the relationships that I've had haven't lasted more than 3 months."

"Well I have a feeling that you've found the perfect relationship."

Kookaburra placed his right hand on my left cheek, leaned forward and kissed me gently on the lips, I reached up and started running my hand through his hair, I could feel my back against the wall as he pressed his body against mine, I soon heard the sound of someone walking up the corridor, it's most likely a soldier.

"Quick, in here," said Kook opening his bedroom door.

We dashed inside and were silent until we were sure that they'd walked past.

"That was close." said Kook sighing with relief.

"Too close."

Kook took my hand and walked me over to his nest, my heart started pounding and my hands started shaking as he sat me down and sat down beside me.

"I love you Nightingale."

"I love you too."

He kissed me again and I could feel myself starting to lean backwards, I put my right hand further behind me to steady myself, this wasn't going to lead to anything, but it was almost like it was going on, we forgot about the world around us and focused on each other as we got lost in the heat of the moment, that moment was soon interrupted by a knock on the door, followed by it opening instantly, surely we were going to get busted, but we were safe, it was only my dad.

"What the 'eck is going on 'ere?" he said a look of fury on his face.

Me and Kook looked at each other quickly before turning back to my dad, I shuffled back, away from Kook before standing upright.

"Dad, just let me explain, it's not what you thought it was."

"Don't give me all that rubbish, I know exactly what was going on, I warned you Kookaburra, and I was coming here to apologize for being so hard on you, but i find this." he was walking over to us as he spoke, but he was focusing on Kook, Kook was backing up trying to get away from my dad, he'd backed away around 3 feet when he backed into the dresser.

"I said no funny business." my dad continued. " I gave you a chance and you just threw it back in my face."

"Dad please, nothing was going on, you've got to believe me."

Dad wouldn't listen to me, his anger was just fixed on Kook, I was about to attempt getting my dads attention again when my dads fist went flying hitting Kook in the face with a strong right hook.

"DAD! Stop it and listen to me!" I shouted.

Dad hit Kook once more before I jumped in and got between them.

"Dad, you listen to me when I'm talking to you! There was nothing going on, it was just a kiss."

"It didn't look like that to me."

"That's most probably because you're an over-protective father who doesn't care about how happy his daughter is, and thinks that just because he's a guy that you don't like, he doesn't make him right for me."

"How dare you speak to me like that."

"But it's true. Dad, have you ever wondered why all the relationships that I've had haven't lasted more than 3 months, it's not because those guys don't care about me, it's because you scared them off, if you want me to be happy you should just back off!"

"I'm sorry love."

"It's too late for that now dad, and I would very much appreciate it, if you left the room."

"But..."

"Get out!"

With a look of shock and apology my dad turned around and left the room.

"I'm really sorry Kook." I said turning back to Kook.

"It's alright."

Kook had blood pouring from his nose, a cut lip and a gash on his eyebrow, as well as a black eye, I reached into my pouch on my belt, pulled out my handkerchief and handed it to him.

"Thanks."

"Are you going to be alright?

"Yeah, don't worry about me, I'll be fine.

Making sure that Kook really was alright, I went back to my own room, I'm never going to forgive my dad for what he's done.


	15. Chapter 15 Crocness

**Chapter 15 Crocness**

It was another cold day so I wrapped up warm before going down for breakfast, everyone was there except for Nightingale and Kookaburra. I'd only been there for 5 minutes until they walked down the corridor, Kook seemed to be in a bit of a state, he had a cut on his bottom lip and left eyebrow, and a large bruise underneath his left eye.

"What happened to you Kook?" I asked concerned.

"Oh, erm...nothing, I just walked into a door that's all."

"It looks too bad for just one door." said Gildar. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you've been in a fight."

"Who would I have wanted to fight, there's no one here who I hate that much to beat up, and I'm not the kind of person who would fight someone for no reason."

Kook's injury got me worried, I was sure that he's been in a fight, ever since the king had spoken to him, he's been acting very different, so has Nightingale, they seem like rather good friends now, but is that really the truth? I asked a few of the others about it and they didn't know anything about the situation, the only people who would know would be Nightingale and Kookaburra, but would it be a very good idea if I actually asked them about it, they're most probably putting on a brave face.

Nightingale was walking to the lookout tower when I stopped her to ask her.

"Nightingale, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah sure."

"Do you still have a crush on Kookaburra?"

She smiled. "Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"It's just that you seem a bit too relaxed with the fact that the rules say that you can't really be together."

I wish that I hadn't said that as now Nightingale's smile transformed into a frown, she lowered her head and tears started to form in her eyes.

"Did you have to mention that?" she asked.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

"No, it's alright."

"So, you still have a crush on him. I thought that you were over him seeing as you don't seem as distracted as you were."

"I wish that you guys would make your mind up on how you want me to be behaving, first you were concerned because I was distracted and now you're concerned because I'm not as distracted as i was, how do you want me to behave?"

"No it's nothing like that, I was just wondering, like a good friend would."

"Well thanks, no I'm not over Kook, I still like him, I'm just trying to not let him distract me, we're just good friends right now."

"Oh okay. That's all I wanted to know, sorry to disturb you."

I felt slightly ashamed with myself, I'd disturbed Nightingale and upset her in just a few minutes, some friend I must be. I went to my duty, Ballista and Faetal were talking about something, I wanted to know what it was, maybe it was about Nightingale and Kookaburra.

"What are you two talking about?" I asked.

"We just think that we know why Nightingale and Kookaburra are acting the way that they are." Faetal replied.

"Go on then."

"Well, we think that they may be dating anyway."

"What, behind everyone's backs, breaking the rules."

"Yeah, it's possible."

"No, Nightingale and Kook wouldn't do that, they're only friends."

"How do you know?"

"I've just been talking to Nightingale, she told me that her and Kook are just friends."

"Are you sure that she meant it, she may have been lying."

"No, she wouldn't lie, she's not the lying type, and anyway, they know what happens when you break the rules around here."

"What?"

"You get fired obviously."

When I thought about it, maybe Nightingale was lying, she's acting way too calm around Kook for them to be just friends, and if she still had a crush on him then maybe she'd be looking in his direction more often and would probably go red when he's around her or when he's talking to her, like she did before, I'm a bit suspicious.

Christmas soon arrived and we were all given a few days off, we sat around the tables in the great hall with our families, everyone's families were there, except for Kook's.

"Kook, where are your mum and dad?" I asked.

"They had to go back home, something important came up."

"Oh, okay."

"But they left me this before they left, mum told me not to open it until today."

Kook revealed something wrapped in light brown paper with a piece of string holding it all together.

"Why don't you open it now?"

"Yeah, I might as well."

He gently started to unwrap the parcel, when it was open he paused before pulling out a knitted woollen jumper, with his name stitched across the front. It was hard to keep in the laughter, it really wasn't his colour, it was bright red with a hot pink collar.

"It's, erm...very nice." I managed to say without laughing.

"Nice? It's hideous."

"Still at least you'll never forget your name." Gildar joked.

"Ha ha, very funny, not."

"Don't be so mean, your mum and dad got you that out of kindness." said Nightingale.

"Yeah, you're right."

Apart from Kook's little embarrassing present, the whole day was fantastic, we had our families beside us to wish us a Merry Christmas, and we also had each other, all of us now the best of friends, our families were going to be leaving the next day so we made the most of the time we had and spent as much time as we could together, after a very busy day I was exhausted and couldn't wait to get to bed.


	16. Chapter 16 Nightingale

**Chapter 16 Nightingale**

Mum and dad went back to Britain the very next day, I'd now forgiven dad about what he did to Kook, and he'd now promised that he wasn't going to be as protective around any of the guys that I'm going out with, and Kook's wounds had now nearly completely healed, all he had now was a couple of scars.

Three days after they'd all left, things were finally getting back to normal, we were back on our duties and most of the incidents that had happened were now forgotten, I thought that it was all now going to be nice and quiet until the next time our families visit, until I got a letter from my sister.

_"Hi sis. Thought that I might come and visit you for a few days, see how you're settling into your job, I've recently got a new job, loving it at the moment, and maybe you can introduce me to this new boyfriend of yours. Love and cuddles from your crow sister."_

"Oh no." I said.

"What?"

"My sister's coming to visit."

"We didn't know that you had a sister. You've never mentioned her before."

"And there's a perfectly good reason why, she's nothing but trouble, and she's always jealous because I've got something better than her, I've got a better voice than her, I've got a better job than her, the list is endless."

"What does she look like?"

"She looks just like me, but we're not twins."

I've got to be honest, I'm really not looking forward to my sisters visit, no doubt that she'll attempt to rub in the fact that she's useless compared to me, making me feel bad, or she'll most likely do something mischievous, maybe pose as me and nearly lose me my job.

One Saturday morning, I was in my room giving it a quick tidy around, when there was a knock on my bedroom door, answering it I was confronted by my sister stood there, she may look exactly like me, but she's completely different, I take after our mum whereas she takes after dad.

"Alright sis?" She said in her Yorkshire accent just like dads.

"Hi." I replied.

"I've got to say sis, you really 'ave done well for yourself, your room's nearly as big as the living room back 'ome."

"I see that you're still your original self. How did the job interviews go?"

"Three turned me down, but one of them accepted me."

"What's your new job then that you said that you love so much at the moment."

"Well...mum and dad hate me for this but...I'm a maid."

I sniggered. "A maid?"

"Yeah, it's really good money."

"How much do you get paid?"

"Five silver coins."

"An hour?"

"No daily. How much do you get paid?"

"Twenty silver coins."

"Daily?"

"No per hour."

"By 'eck sis, I wish that I was as lucky as you. By the way, where's this boyfriend of yours, I thought that you were gonna introduce me to 'im."

"He won't be long, he said that he was going to come down here to see me at half eight before we go to our duties."

"Mum said that he's an Australian, is he?"

"Yeah, he is."

"That's not like you, I thought that you weren't that keen on Aussies."

"Yeah, that's true, but that was before I met him, he's the nicest guy that you'd ever meet. Talking of relationships, have you got a boyfriend now?"

"Nah. But I have just met a guy that I'd quite like to get with."

"What does he look like?"

"He seems to be like a very strong guy, he's got amazing muscles, long dark hair and a face like it's been carved from marble."

"Where did you meet him?"

"I haven't exactly introduced myself yet, I've only just seen him now."

"What? You mean one of the other defenders?"

"Yeah." she walked me towards the door and pointed at Gildar. "That guy there."

"Gildar?"

"Yeah, he's well fit."

"Yeah, he is quite handsome, but I don't think that he's the guy for you."

"Why what's he like?"

"Well, let's just say that he's a bit too obsessed with how he looks, he always got a mirror with him twenty four seven."

"Oh, yeah that's not really my kind of guy. Okay, I'm over him."

"Geez, that was quick, you are the ficklest person that I have ever known."

I looked down the corridor and Kook was just coming down the corridor.

"My boyfriend's just coming down the corridor."

"Great."

"Knock knock." said Kook knocking on the door, he looked at my sister and then looked at me, he had a look of shock and confusion on his face, and he obviously couldn't tell which one of us was the real Nightingale. "Who, what, where, when, how?" he said.

"Kook, it's me, I'm the real Nightingale, this is my sister." I said.

"Alright mate, I've gotta say, you really 'ave picked the ripest apple from the tree 'ere. Back 'ome Nightingale couldn't get away from all the fellas who admired 'er."

"You are such a liar sis, it was just the one guy, he was a great looker but he wasn't my type."

"Erm, well it's great to finally meet you...err...what can I call you?" Kook asked shaking my sister hand.

"You can call me Crow if you like, because that's what I am."

"I thought that you were a Nightingale like your sister."

"No, Nightingale is more Nightingale than Crow, whereas I'm more Crow than Nightingale, if you get what I mean."

"Err...I think so."

"What she's trying to say is that she takes after dad while I take after mum." I explained.

"Oh right."

"You're not going to be causing any trouble this time are you sis?" I asked.

"What do you take me for, I'd never cause any trouble."

"What about when we were at school and you caused a riot in the school hall, you posed as me, so it was me who got into trouble."

"Yeah, that was a pretty good joke."

"Joke? I had detention for a week."

"I said sorry didn't I?"

I didn't trust my sister when she said that she wouldn't be causing any trouble, she's well know for it, no doubt that she was going to attempt to get me into trouble or try to lose me my job, like she did before, to make sure that she didn't go blabbing around the castle about mine and Kookaburra's relationship, I had to tell her that it was a secret.

"By the way, you know how me and Kook are in a relationship at the moment?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it's a secret, we're not really supposed to be in a relationship, it's against the rules."

"Whoa, you rebels. Don't worry, I won't say a word."

I could tell that she had something planned, I could see it in her eyes, a look of mischief. After she'd been in the castle for three days, she still hadn't done anything bad, maybe she's seen the error of her ways and has decided to put her mischievous days behind her, but knowing her, she's probably just waiting for the right moment.

I got out of my nest the next morning, my sister was in the nest next to mine, we created her another nest for her to sleep in for the time that she was going to be staying here, it took us a good few hours, but working together we got it completed in double quick time. I walked over to my wardrobe and got my dress out along with my gloves and boots, I looked over at my sisters nest and she was still asleep. I was just about to finish fastening my boots when I saw a shadow looming over me, I looked up and my sister was in front of me, I opened my mouth to speak, but she placed her hand over my mouth to stop me.

"Shh." she said.

I had no idea what she was doing, but whatever was going to happen next wasn't going to be good, she opened the draw next to me and pulled out three or four ropes, getting a handkerchief she wrapped it around my mouth preventing me from saying anything, what was she doing and what did she have planned? Taking the ropes she tied my wrists together along with my feet, taking a third rope she wrapped it around my waist strapping me into the chair.

"You may have a great job right now sis, but what abou' in a couple of hours from now when I announce your little secret? I'm surprised that you didn't even see this coming, you must 'ave thought tha' I'd come here for another reason than just t'see you, I'm ever so close to finally being better that you, when you're jobless, I'll be ahead of you with the only job that I 'ave, and that's another thing, what's Kookaburra going to think of you when I say that it was you who spread the word, maybe he'll lose the job too, it'll probably be "bye bye boyfriend" after that."

I couldn't believe that she was going to do this, out of all the 'pranks' and 'jokes' that she's done, this is way too extreme, not only is she going to lose me my job, but she's going to attempt to make the man of my dreams leave me, she's just like dad, she doesn't care about the fact how happy I am, she's just overrun with jealousy, I had to stop her before she had succeeded with her mission, I attempted to get up, but it was impossible with the chair that I was strapped into, she backed away from me, put her dress on and left for the lookout tower, where Kook was already waiting, he was going to get a real shock when he finds out what's going on.

"See you in the job market sis." my sister said laughing her unusual laugh, it's more like a squawk than a laugh.

When she left the room I started to wriggle and tug at the ropes attempting to get free, I raised may hands towards my mouth to remove the handkerchief, I couldn't reach, so I lowered my head bringing my head down to my hands, I could only just reach bringing the handkerchief down to under my chin, now this was going to be tricky, having to untie my hands, lowering my head again I grabbed the rope tightly with my teeth and eased it off bit by bit, it took me a rough 15 minutes, but the rest probably wouldn't take me that long, when my wrists were untied I gradually eased each arm up from behind the ropes around my waist, when they were free I reached behind the chair for the knot, it was a tricky knot too, it was one of those double knots, I kept on picking and tugging at the knot until the ropes loosened and fell onto my lap, pushing them off I reached down to untie my feet, I must have spent nearlly and hour trying to untie myself. The second that I was free, I jumped up, ran out of my room and to the lookout tower to put an end to my sisters plot.


	17. Chapter 17 Kookaburra

**Chapter 17 Kookaburra**

Nightingale was acting a bit strangely today, and she sounded different, I was slightly worried about her, maybe she's not feeling alright.

"Nightingale, are you feeling alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why?

"You're just acting a bit wierd."

"Oh, no I'm just a bit tired."

I walked over to her and went to hold her hand, she whipped her hand away.

"What is it now?"

"Sorry, you just startled me."

"I always hold your hand. Are you sure that you're alright."

"Yeah, I'm fine."

She then slipped her hand in mine, I moved closer to her, leant forward and went to whisper something in her ear.

"You know, sometimes I wish that I could stay up here with you twenty four seven."

"Cool." she replied.

There was most definitley something wrong, I grabbed Nightingale at the top of her arms and turned her to face me.

"Babe, there is something wrong isn't there? You know that you can tell me anything, I'd tell you anything and you said that you'd tell me anything when we first got together...Nightingale, I thought that you..."

Before I had a chance to finish my sentence Nightingale threw her arms around my neck and kissed me very firmly on the lips, even her kissing was different, I was a bit startled first of all, but as the moment sunk in, I started to relax, until a loud, startled and angry voice shouted from the left side of us.

"Kook! What are you doing!"

Oh no, if this is one of the other defenders we're doomed, I was surprised when I heard that voice, but not as surprised when I saw who it was, stood there at the top of the tower stairs, looking shocked, startled, angry and upset was...Nightingale, at least, I think it was Nightingale.

"What?...But...who...N-nightingale? I stammered struggling to realise what was going on. "What's going on here?"

"I was asking you the same thing, what are you doing kissing my sister?"

"But...I thought...so you're...and this isn't...I feel sick."

I was so confused, I didn't know which was the real Nightingale and which was her sister, I had to find out somehow.

"Come on Kook, surely you can recognise your own girlfriend."

"I don't even know which one of you is my girlfriend." I paused, then I came up with a great, simple way to sort this out. "I've got it, I know how to tell which one of you is the real Nightingale, what did I write in the first note that I left for you?"

The Nightingale on the right was silent for 20 seconds before giving her answer.

"Err...you are the best girlfriend that a Kookaburra could have?"

I turned my gaze to the Nightingal on the left, she gave her answer straight away.

"They say that a picture tells 1,000 words, but when I see yours all I see is three, I...love...you."

"You're the real Nightingale."

I walked over to the real Nightingale, and wrapped my arms around her giving her a big hug of apology.

"I'm so sorry babe. I seriously thought that she was you."

"It's alright, I know that you'd never do something like that, it's an easy mistake to make, we look so alike."

"Where were you anyway?"

"She tied me up so that she could tell our secret, make us lose our jobs and probably make you leave me."

"I'd never leave you, I love you."

Smiling, I leant forward and gave her a quick kiss, while we were distracted, Nightingale's sister tried to make her escape.

"Not so fast sis." said Nightingale grabbing her sisters right arm. "You've gone too far this time.

"Okay, I'm sorry."

"Sorry won't cover it this time, and if you think that I'm going to forgive you anytime soon, then you've got another thing coming."

"I suppose that you'll want me to leave."

"Not before you understand, sure you don't have a job as good as mine or everything I've got it ten times better than what you've got doesn't mean that you can just go around trying to compete with me, if you just try as hard as you can you'll find a job and a guy that makes you happy, just like I'm happy now, the key to your happiness doesn't lie in someone elses pocket."

"Yeah, you're right Nightingale, there's something else that you've got from mum, her advice."

"Are you going to be able to leave without supervision so you don't cause trouble or do you need me to follow you?"

"No, it's alright sis, I'm not going to do anything like that anymore, sure I'll probably play the odd prank at Christmas, but not anything like this."

"Okay."

Nightingale's sister then turned and slowly walked down the tower steps, it was 5 minutes until we saw her walking out of the door, I turned to Nightingale and she was crying.

"You alright babe?" I asked.

"Yeah I'm fine."

She got her handkerchief out of her pouch on her belt and wiped away her tears, I walked over to her and gave her another comforting hug.

"Why can't I have a normal family?" she said sobbing.

I pulled her close to me and kissed her on her forehead.

"Don't worry about it babe, everyone has problems with their families every now and again."

When the day was up we went back downstairs, we would normally just go straight to bed but this time Thorne was stood by the door waiting for us.

"What's up Throne?" I asked.

"I was just wondering if I could speak to Nightingale for a second."

"Oh, yeah okay." said Nightingale.

"Well I saw your sister leaving the castle this morning, is everything okay?"

"Oh, erm...yeah, everything's fine, she just needed to go home early."

"Why?"

"She...erm...had to get back to work, there was a problem."

"What was that?"

"Err...I don't know, she didn't tell me."

"Oh, shame. I'm a bit sorry that she had to leave, she seemed rather nice."

Well that was wierd, I hope that Thorne didn't have a crush on Nightingale's sister, putting that to one side we went to bed, when we arrived at Nightingale's bedroom, we stopped at the door before I held her in my arms once again, this time I didn't want to let go, she looked into my eyes, I could see that she didn't want to let go either.

"I wish that I could be with you twenty four seven." I repeated.

"I with exactly the same."

"That's a million times better than your sisters response, when I said it to her by mistake."

"It's alright, I forgive you."

I smiled, stroked her on the cheek, cupped her under her chin, leant forward sn kissed her gently."

"Well...goodnight." I said.

"Goodnight."

I walked away, before I went round the corner, I turned around to look back at Nightingale, she was still at the door, she gave me a little wave and blew me another kiss, I did the same back, , despite all these problems that are facing us, we were still as close as ever. That night I even dreamt of Nightingale, she was stood at the top of the tower calling my name, I was at the bottom and was running up the steps trying to get to her, but no matter how fast I ran, I wasn't getting any closer, she was now screaming for me, I ran faster and faster, but I couldn't get there, I suddenly woke yp in my room, it was still dark and Gildar was standing over me.

"Kook, wake up!" he shouted.

"Huh? What is it? What's the emergency?"

"We think that there's someone in the castle, one of the soldiers has been murdered."

"What!"

"Everyone's down at the king's quarters, hurry up."

I got out of my nest and dashed down to the king's quarters, everyone was there talking and panicking, Nightingale looked terrified, when she saw me, she calmed down slightly.

"Are you alright?" I whispered to her.

"No, I'm really scared Kook."

"It's alright, we're going to find them soon enough."

Everyone was very concerned about what was going on, even the king was on his guard, I could tell because he had more than the usual number of guards around him.

"Okay everyone, here's the plan, we're going to have to find this intruder, the last time that he was seen was at the armoury, so we're all going to split up and search around the castle, Gildar and Thorne, you two are going to be checking the armoury, Kookaburra and Ballista, you two are going to be checking the storeroom and oratory, Nightingale and Faetal, you two can check the dungeons, Vane, Tinkor and Skabb you three can check the great hall, Knightriss and Madeva you two can check the kitchen, buttery and bottlery and Shaiden and Crocness, you two can check the gatehouse. Good luck everyone."

This was terrifying, no one has ever broken into the castle before, we grabbed our weapons and ventured out into the castle, I didn't know what I was going to do if I found the intruder, what if he tries to murder me too, me and Ballista checked the storeroom first, it was quiet and dark, Ballista reached over to the right, and picked up a lantern that was stood on the nearby shelf, lightinga a match the lantern soon lit up the whole room with light, it was still very quiet, even me and Ballista were silent for around 20 seconds.

"Did you hear that?" Ballista said suddenly.

"No."

"I just thought that I heard a noise."

"Are you trying to scare me?"

"No, I'm serious, I thought that I heard something."

I listened very carefully, I couldn't hear anything, I brandished my sword just in case, we were starting to walk further away from each other, it was now rather dark where I was and I had no idea where I was going, I soon stopped walking when I accidently walked into a bunch of baskets knocking them over, I heard Ballista brandishing her sword behind me.

"Sorry, my bad. It's hard to see where I'm going."

"Well get a light of some sort."

I felt around me for a lentern, eventually coming across one, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small box of matches, now I had a light, I could look around properly, there was no sign of an intruder anywhere in here, so me and Ballista moved onto the oratory, there was light there so we put our lanterns to one side, it was still very quiet, we walked forward slowly and carefully, soon a loud crash came from my left.

"Was that you again Kook?" Ballista asked.

"No, no it wasn't."

My heart started to beat faster, I didn't take my eyes off where i heard the noise come from, my hands started to tremble and my legs started to shake.

"Calm down Kook, it's probably nothing."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

I put that out of my mind and focussed on the task in hand, after three minutes of silence I heard another crash, this time further ahead, I couldn't take it anymore and I had to find out what it was.

"That's it, I can't take it anymore, I'm investigating that noise."

"Careful Kook."

"I thought that you said that it may be nothing."

I cautiosuly walked over to the direction of the noise, I was metres away when I heard exactly the same noise, it startled me making me jump back one metre, I looked back at Ballista, she wasn't that far behind me, I got closer, the noise was coming from behing the curtain covering a small corridor, I slowly reached over and pulled the curtain back slightly, from behind the curtain, and black and white cat ran out scaring me.

"What's up with you?"

"I hate cats."

"Why?"

"I'm a bird, do the math."

Ballista laughed, but it wasn't funny, I truly was scared of cats, it started as a young chick when one attacked me.

Well there wasn't anyone in here either, so we went to check the corridors, we were walking down the corridor leading to the dungeon, we were about to turn around and go back when we heard a scream come from behind us, it was one of the girls, we rand down the corridor to see what was wrong, the scene that confronted us was Nightingale and Faetal stood near a narrow, dark corridor in front of them, both of them were pointing their swords in the direction of this corridor.

"What's wrong?" Ballista asked.

"There's someone down there." said Faetal.

"I'll go and get the others."

This was really scary, the girls had spotted someone down that corridor, I could see by Nightingale's face that she was petrified brandishing my sword I stepped in to help while Ballista ran off to get the others.

"Who's down there?" I shouted, there was no reply. "Show yourself."

After 10 seconds of silence, we saw a dark figure walk towards us.

"Kookaburra, just the person I was looking for." They said.

Faetal and Nightingale looked at me in shock.

"Me? What are you looking for me for? Who are you?"

They moved forwards, eventually revealing themselves, when I saw what they looked like my heart skipped a beat, it was Falcon, but I'd killed him in that battle ages ago, how can he be here?

"Falcon?"

"Yes."

"But I killed you."

"No, you killed my brother, he's the Falcon that you knew, I'm his twin and i swore that I'd get you back for killing my brother, now I'm ever so close."

He stepped towards me and brandished his sword.

"Be careful Kook!" Nightingale shouted.

Falcons brother then lashed at me with his sword he had a look of hunger in his eyes, hungry for revenge, I had a feeling that killing Falcon was going to come back to haunt me, every single swipe of the swords I could hear Nightingale panicking, soon I heard the sound of her brandishing her sword, I couldn't have her get involved in a fight like this.

"No, Nightingale don't, I can do this." I shouted pushing Falcon's brother away.

He lashed forward with his sword again but I jumped out of the way, he swung his sword but I ducked just in time.

"Come on Kookaburra, I thought that you'd be a bit harder to fight than this."

He paused to think, looked at Nightingale and a mischievous grin started to grow on his face, he dashed past me running over to Nightingale, he grabbed the top of her arms and pulled her towards him kissing her, I felt my blood starting to boil, my heart beating faster and my face going red with rage, I gripped my sword and ran over to Falcon's brother, no one does that to my girlfriend, when he saw me running over he picked his sword back up and did his best to fight me off, I grabbed his sword and yanked it out of his hands and threw it on the ground along with mine, I clenched my fist and hit him across the face knocking him out cold. I turned back to Nightingale, she dropped her sword, ran over to me and threw her arms around me.

"Oh Kook, I thought that I was going to lose you." she said burying her face into my neck.

"It's alright, you know that I would have snapped if he kissed you, I couldn't accept that."

We were in the middle of this romantic moment when we suddenly realised, Faetal was still in the room, I let go of Nightingale and stepped away from her.

"What's all that about?" Faetal asked.

Busted.

"Erm...well...we, err...we can explain."

"You two are dating in secret aren't you?"

"We might as well tell her Kook." said Nightingale.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." I took a deep breath and revealed everything. "Me and Nightingale have been together for a number of months, we din't want anyone to know, so we've been keeping it a secret."

"You mean behind our backs? Breaking the rules? You do know that you're going to get the sack if people find out don't you?"

"Yeah, we know, please don't tell the others."

"I don't know, they probably should have the right to know about this."

"Please Faetal, we beg you, we've done so well to keep it a secret, please don't ruin it for us." said Nightingale.

"Well...alright, I'll keep quiet, and I won't tell the others, but I think that you guys will have to announce it sooner or later."

Ballista arrived with the others 2 minutes later.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Kook fought him off, he's just been knocked out that's all." Faetal explained.

"Who is he?"

"He's Falcon's twin brother. He came here looking for me so he could kill me." I said

Today has been a really hectic day, first Nightingale's sister nearly revealed our secret, and I was nearly killed by Falcon's twin brother, plus Faetal now knows about mine and Nightingale's secret relationship, hopefully things will be much quieter from now on.


	18. Chapter 18 Faetal

**Chapter 18 Faetal**

I couldn't get my head around the fact that Kook and Nightingale have been lying all this time, but it also explains why they've been acting very strange lately, I wanted to know more about this, so I spoke to Nightingale about it, I asked her to tell me about what's been going on since they got together and what it's like being in a relationship with Kook, pretty much everything.

"So what's the fully story?" I asked. "Has there been any problems?"

"How long have you got? First there was my dad, he was a bit over protective and he got the wrong idea when he saw me and Kook kissing, that's how he got those wounds."

"You mean your dad hit him?"

"Yeah, then there was my sister, she's a bit like my dad, except she's a bit over jealous, so she was trying to lose us our jobs, that's why she left the castle so early."

"So it's not been that easy for you guys? What about Kook, what's it like to date him?"

"He's amazing, he's the best boyfriend any girl would want, he's the best that I've ever had, and I've dated one or two guys."

"How did you two get together?"

"It was so romantic, Kook left me a letter in my nest, it said _"Meet me at the top of the lookout tower at midnight, yours sincerely your secret admirer"_ I didn't know that it was him at first because he had his cloak hood up, but when I found him out and he told me how he felt do you know what he said to me?"

"No what?"

"He said, _"While I was waiting for you I was matching up every star with a reason why i like you. I ran out of stars."_

"Aw, that's so romantic."

"I know."

"I didn't know that he could be that romantic, he doesn't seem like that kind of guy."

"You know what Faetal, I'm actually quite glad that you know about our relationship, because i finally have someone to talk to it about."

I could see how happy Nightingale and Kook were together, but I had a terrible feeling that the king was going to find out soon enough, and I didn't want that to happen to them, I know how much they love their jobs, would they even stay together if they get the sack, I didn't want to think about it at the moment so I did the best I could to get it out of my mind.

The months started to fly by and it was soon coming up to Spring, I've successfully managed to not tell anyone about Nightingale and Kookaburra's relationship but it was sure that someone was going to figure them out.

One sunny but chilly morning, someone had reported that there was a large creature not that far from the castle in the woods, so five of us were sent to look for this mysterious creature, there was me, Vane, Ballista, Kookaburra and Nightingale, it was most likely to be a bear, if it was, we'd have to be careful, we weren't going to be killing the bear or whatever it was, unless it attempted to attack.

"Okay, let's split up." said Ballista. "Faetal, Vane you go that way, and Kook and Nightingale, you go that way, I'll look over here."

Me and Vane got our weapons prepared and ventured to the left side of the woods, it was very quiet, Vane was starting to panic as we didn't even know what we were looking for, mind you i was also a bit worried, I've never come across a bear before if that's even what it is, it might not be, it might just be a deer or something.

"Are you alright Vane?" I asked.

"Yeah, just a bit nervous."

"Just relax, it'll probably turn out to be nothing at all."

I could talk, telling him to relax, I was just as nervous as him. We ventured further into the woods, there was still no sign of this creature we were about to turn back when we heard a rustling coming from our right, we got our weapons ready but it just turned out to be Ballista.

"Any luck?" I asked.

"No, nothing."

"It was most probably a false alarm."

"Yeah, have either of you seen Kook and Nightingale, I can't seem to find them."

"No, I can't say that we have."

We'd now stopped searching for this creature and were now looking for Nightingale and Kookaburra, after 10 minutes of searching and calling for them we found them, they were stood under a large oak tree talking.

"I love you Nightingale." I heard Kook say.

"I know that you do, you tell me every day." Nightingale replied.

Turning around I went to tell Vane and Ballista that I'd found them, they're only talking, it couldn't hurt anyone.

"I've found them." I said.

"Where are they?" Ballista asked.

"They're just behind those bushes, under the oak tree...hang on...where's my dagger? I had it a minute ago." Taking my attention away from the situation, I started looking around me for my dagger.

"Do you need any help looking?" Ballista asked.

"No, it's fine. I've found it." I replied standing back up.

"Whoa, hey guys, you've got to see this." Vane called.

"What is it?"

"Just come and look."

He was crouching by one of the bushes, I looked at Ballista in confusion before walking over to see what was so fascinating, when I could see vane's face clearly he had a look of shock on his face, I looked over to my right and Ballista had exactly the same expression, now completely confused I looked over the bush to see what was so shocking...oh no...Nightingale and Kook were now kissing.

"Oh my God." said Ballista. "Do they not remember the rules?

"Yeah, obviously they remember the rules but think about how they must feel, they're in love and they don't want anyone to know about this, so don't go ruining this for them." I explained.

"You knew all about this didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"For how long? A day? A week?

"A few months."

"Months!"

"I promised that I wouldn't tell anyone."

"I haven't, I'm going back to the castle to tell the king."

Ballista stood up and went running back towards the castle.

"Ballista wait!" I shouted running after her.

I was chasing Ballista for around five minutes, when I got close enough to her, I grabbed her by the arm and held her back, she was starting to struggle under my grip so to ensure she really didn't get away again, I wrapped the arm I had free around her waist, securing her tightly, she tried to push me away but I wasn't letting go, attempting to wrestle herself free she soon grew weak and eventually stopped struggling.

"Okay, okay, you win, now let me go." she said.

"Not until you promise not to tell the king about what you saw."

"Alright, I promise that I won't tell the king. What about the others?"

"No, you can't tell them either. I promised Nightingale and Kook, so you're going to have to promise too."

"Alright, I promise."

I loosened my grip and we both stood upright.

"Sorry about that, I just couldn't let you go and tell the king like that, not after I promised Nightingale and Kook."

"It's alright."

I was glad that I Ballista wasn't angry with me, we were talking for around two minutes when I stopped to think, there was something not right.

"Did you see where Vane went?" I asked.

"No, he's probably gone back to the castle."

"Yeah, that's where we were going to go anyway...wait...back to the castle...the castle! The others! The secret!"

We ran back to the castle as fast as we could, we raced through the gates, through the courtyard, through the main doors and into the main hall where we saw Vane speaking to the others.

"Vane no! Don't tell them! It's supposed to be a secret!" I shouted running over along with Ballista.

"What secret?" Asked Madeva.

"Oh...erm...nothing."

"What do you mean nothing? You've told us that there's a secret, we all want to know now."

"B-but...we can't tell you. A secret's a secret."

"Come on, it can't be that bad. Have you two broken the rules?"

"We haven't but someone else has and they don't want anyone else to know."

"Who?"

"We're not saying."

"Come on, please."

"No."

"Don't be so harsh sister, if they want to keep it a secret then it's best if it stays that way." said Knightriss.

"Thanks Knightriss." I replied.

When everyone had calmed down me and Ballista pulled Vane to one side.

"You haven't told them?"

"No, I heard what you said back in the woods about how you've promised not to tell anyone, well I've decided that I'm going to keep quiet too."

"Aw thanks Vane. When Nightingale and Kook get back I'll have to tell them that you two now know."

When Nightingale and Kook finally got back, I took them to one side to tell them about what happened back in the woods.

"Where did you guys go, we were looking for you for ages." Nightingale asked.

"Well, the thing is...Ballista and Vane now know about your relationship." I explained.

"But you promised not to tell anyone."

"I didn't tell them, they found out for themselves, they saw you two kissing in the woods. But I've spoken to them and they've both promised not to tell anyone, so you don't have to worry."

That was close, the secret was nearly revealed twice, once in the woods and again when we got back to the castle, I wish that Nightingale and Kook had hadn't trusted me with the secret, I'm not that good with keeping secrets, I guess that the best thing for me to do is to forget about it and try my best to get it out of my mind.


	19. Chapter 19 Nightingale

**Chapter 19 Nightingale**

Spring eventually came to an end and summer finally came around, it was getting warmer and warmer as rhe days went on, and everyone was moaning about the heat, the only person who was fine with it was Kook, I guess that he's used to this kind of hear. I was hoping that this was going to be a nice quiet summer with nothing to cause any trouble, but I was wrong, 3 weeks into the summer and a strange plague came into the kingdom, people were starting to die every week, and even some of us in the castle got effected.

It was another scorching hot day and again I'd struggled to get to sleep, as well as the heat, there was the though of the plague on my mind. I got out of my nest, got ready for the day and walked down to the king's quarters, everyone was there except for Kook, it's not like him to be late to the king's quarters.

"Where's Kook?" I asked.

"Don't know, he's most probably still in bed."

I sighed. "I'll go and get him."

I turned around and walked to Kook's room, this was so unlike him, I hope that he's feeling alright. It was very quiet when I got to Kook's room, very gently I knocked on the door.

"Kook, are you alright?" I asked. "Everyone's waiting for you at the king's quarters." There was no reply. "I'm coming in okay?"

After around three seconds of even more silence, I opened the door and slowly walked in, Kook was still in his nest, he didn't look that well, his skin was very pale with a slight hint of green, I knew as soon as I saw him that something wasn't right, I walked over and knelt down beside him, I placed my hand on his forehead, he was very hot, very gently I ran my hand through his hair, as I did his eyelids started to twitch.

"Kook? Kook. Wake up, everyone's waiting for you." I said gently.

As I spoke Kook's eyes slowly opened.

"Morning lazy bones." I joked. Kook closed his eyes again, gave a deep sigh and opened his eyes again. "What's wrong? You look dreadful."

"I feel dreadful too." Kook replied, his voice was very quiet and was almost a whisper. "I think that I might have the plague that's going around."

"Shall I go and tell the others that you're not going to be working today then?"

"Yeah, okay. Thanks babe."

"I'll also get the doctor to come down and see you."

"Okay."

I leant down and gave Kook a quick kiss on the cheek before I got up to go.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, I don't want you to get sick too." he said coughing.

"I don't care." I replied.

When I left the room I couldn't get my head around what had happened, Kook has the plague, I felt a great pain begin to form in my heart, it felt like one big moment in my life was coming to an end, mind you, I bet that Kook feels the same way, I really don't want to lose him. Everyone was still outside the king's quarters when I got back.

"So where's Kook?" Madeva asked.

"I think that he's got the plague." I replied. "He looked dreadful when I saw him."

"Oh my God, the plague?"

"Yeah, he's not going to be working today and we should probably get the doctor to see him."

"Good idea."

We told the king that Kook wasn't feeling well, and we got the doctor to have a look at him and see how bad his illness actually was, hopefully not so bad. I just wanted to see how he was getting on, it was so lonely being at the top of the lookout tower by myself, there wasn't anyone to talk to, and Kook wasn't there to comfort me, like he'd always do, just thinking about him started bringing tears to my eyes.

"Nightingale, are you alright?" A voice said from behind me.

At first I thought that it was Kook, but it couldn't be, it was a girls voice, I turned around and Ballista was stood behind me.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied wiping away my tears. "What are you doing up here? I thought that you were defence."

"Me and Faetal have been talking and we thought that you may be a bit lonely up here on your own, so I thought that I'd come up here to keep you company."

"Aw thanks Ballista. That's really thoughtful of you."

"It was Faetal's idea."

"I'm not really that used to being up here on my own, as Kook would normally be up here with me."

As soon as I mentioned Kook's name, the tears came flooding back, this time I couldn't stop them, Ballista saw how upset I was and she wrapped her arm around my shoulders giving me a friendly comforting hug, it wasn't the same as Kook, but it was enough to settle me down.

"I don't want to lose him Ballista."

"I can see why, but you know Kook, he's a fighter, he'll be fine, just you wait and see."

I hope that she's right, but despite she attempted to get my hopes up which was kind, I was still extremely worried about Kook though, most of the people in the kingdom who get the plague would normally die within two weeks, but Ballista was right, Kook is a fighter, he'll probably be right as rain within two weeks, I hope and pray.

One week after Kook got ill and he hasn't got any better, in fact he's got worse, dark blotches were starting to appear on his arms and chest, one of the symptoms of the plague. One morning I got up extra early to go and see how Kook was doing, the doctor was just leaving Kook's room as I got there.

"How's he doing doctor?" I asked.

"He's not doing well. The plague's nearly reached that point where no amount of medication will help him, and if that's the case then..."

"He'll die?"

The doctor nodded.

"Can I see him?"

"Yes, but he's very weak at the moment, but luckily the plague isn't that contagious at this moment in time."

The doctor opened the door for me and I walked in, Kook was lying ever so still, he was paler than ever and I could see the blotches on his chest, it was slightly scary. As I walked over it was almost as if Kook knew that I was in the room, he opened his eyes and turned his head towards me, a small smile appeared when he saw me.

"Hi Kook." I said kneeling down.

"Hey babe." He replied attempting to sit up

"Don't try sitting up, you're too weak, you need to rest."

I was sat talking to Kook for around fifteen minutes before I had to go to the king's quarters.

"Well, I better go, everyone's going to be wondering where I am, I'll come and see you tomorrow."

"If I'm even here tomorrow."

"Don't say that, you're going to get better, I know it."

I hate it when people talk about death like it's going to happen the next day, I just find it depressing, why would you want to talk about death so young, you've barely even lived your life yet, at least enjoy it first.

Everyone wanted to know how Kook was doing when I got to the king's quarters.

"How's Kook doing?" Vane asked.

"He's not doing that good." I replied. "I saw the doctor before i saw him, he said that the plague's nearly reached that point where no amount of medication is going to help him, and if that happens then..."

"Then, what?"

"You know what I mean."

Everyone was startled with the news about Kook's condition, but not as much as me, if he was dying, I didn't want him to die without me being there, I want to be at least informed first so that I could get to him in time, and I'm sure that he's feeling pretty much the same way, and would maybe want to see me first.

With this on my mind, I found it very hard to get any sleep, it was possibly around midnight by the time I actually fell asleep. The next time that I opened my eyes the sunlight was flooding through my bedroom window, another red hot day, the plague had now vanished and no more people were getting affected but this still didn't help the people who were affected.

I got ready for the day ahead and left my room, I didn't have that much time to go and see Kook, but I said that I'd go and see him again today, when I left my bedroom Tinkor was walking up the corridor away from the king's quarters.

"Hey Tink, what's going on?" I asked.

"Kook not well. May be dying." He replied.

"What!"

I ran down the corridor to Kook's room, everyone was stood outside, this really isn't good, my heart started to pound against my ribcage and my palms went all sweaty.

"There you are Nightingale." said Knightriss. "You should probably go in, Kook's been asking for you."

Everyone's outside his room, Kook's been asking for me, this is much worse than I thought. I opened the door and walked in, the doctor was kneeling next to Kook mopping his brow, when he saw me, he stood up and left the room leaving me and Kook on our own, when I knelt down next to him, he slowly raised his right arm and placed his hand on my cheek.

"At least I got to see you one last time." He whispered.

"Don't say that Kook. You know that I won't be able to live without you."

"It's too late, everyone has a time when they've got to die, and I suppose that this is my time."

"No, no you can't die...I love you."

"I love you too babe."

My eyes filled up with tears as I leant down and kissed Kook on the lips, his lips were cold and dry, still at least I wasn't in danger of catching the plague anymore.

Me and Kook were talking for another thirty minutes, I didn't want to leave him, but soon Kook got very tired and eventually fell asleep, at least I hope that he's just sleeping, but he was breathing so I could relax.

I didn't even want to work today, I had far too much on my mind to focus on anything, what if Kook does die? I'd be all on my own, there'd never be another guy who could replace Kook, I had his face stuck in my mind, all I could think of was his stunning blue eyes, his soft lips and soft hair, his mischievous gin, his laugh and the way that he makes me feel daily, I was in the middle of my day dream remembering everything that me and Kook have done, and everything that's happened when I felt a hand land on my shoulder, I gasped and spun around, Faetal was stood behind me.

"You scared me." I said placing my hand on my chest.

"Sorry, I thought that you would have heard me come up here."

"No, I was slightly...distracted."

"Were you thinking about Kook again?"

"Yeah, i just don't want to let him go."

"I know that you're worried about him, but there's still a chance for him to get better."

"No, he's dying, I know it Faetal." I could feel the tears forming in my eyes again, I blinked letting them fall. "Faetal, would you do me a favour?"

"Of course."

"If you hear that Kook's getting worse and may be at deaths doors, will you let me know first, so that I could say goodbye before he goes?"

"Alright."

With all the fresh air combined with the fact that I didn't get that much sleep last night made me feel very sleepy, taking in a big breath I let out a slight yawn.

"When did you go to bed?" Faetal asked.

"10 o'clock, but I didn't fall asleep until midnight."

"No wonder you're tired. Look, you go and have a little lie down, I'll take over."

"No, you don't have to, I'm fine." I replied, yawning again.

"Nightingale, you've only had seven to eight hours of sleep, you need to rest, you don't want to make yourself ill."

"Alright, I suppose that I could do with a short nap. Thanks Faetal, I really appreciate it."

"Don't mention it."

It was really kind of Faetal to take over lookout duty for me, despite I was so tired i still found it very difficult to get to sleep, what if I wake up and Kook's dead, but putting that out of my mind I soon fell asleep, while I was asleep I had the worst dream that I could have had, Kook was stood at the end of the corridor, I ran towards him bit I didn't seem to be getting any closer, I shouted his name, finally I got closer, I reached out to grab his hand, but as my fingers touched his, he disappeared into a cloud of dust, that's when I woke up again, I'd only been asleep for 45 minutes but I didn't want to go back to sleep in case I had another nightmare, slightly shaken I got up and walked back to the lookout tower, Faetal was still there.

"How are you feeling? Better?" She asked.

"Slightly, I had a nightmare though."

"What happened?"

"Kook was stood at the end of the corridor and I couldn't reach him, when I did he turned to dust."

"You need to stop worrying about this."

"But you don't know how I feel, you might not know what it's like to really love a guy."

"I have to admit, but that's true, I had a boyfriend once, but he wasn't the one for me."

Faetal stayed with me all day, now that she was talking to me I wasn't worrying as much about Kook now that I had something else on my mind.

That night I didn't really want to go to bed in case I had another nightmare, but no matter how hard I tried to stay awake, I soon fell asleep, it's highly unlikely that I'm going to have the same nightmare, I didn't but it was very similar, this time me and Kook were walking along the sea front, the tide was up so it was pretty rough, we went quite close to the edge, whenever there was a wave coming we'd back up so we didn't get wet, it was after the third wave when someone pushed Kook forward, he wobbled ferociously before toppling over the edge, I looked down and he was still hanging onto the edge, I looked behind me and Falcon's brother was standing behind us, slowly he backed away disappearing into the shadows, I turned back to Kook and he was still hanging on, he was shouting for me, I reached down with my hand to pull him back up, but I couldn't reach him, eventually he lost his grip and he went falling down into the waves, again I woke up in my safe, dry, empty-ish room, the sunlight was flooding in and it was again another hot summers day.

I was in the middle of getting ready for the day when someone started pounding on my bedroom door, it was long and continuous knocking, someone obviously wanted to talk to me urgently...oh no, if this is Faetal, it can only mean one thing, she said that she would, but it wasn't Faetal, when I opened the door Ballista was stood in front of me, she looked really happy.

"Nightingale, you have to come quick." she said.

"Why?"

"It's Kook."

"Is he alright? He's not dead is he?"

"No, you'll never believe it, but he's made a miraculous recovery."

"Really?"

"Yeah, come on, everyone's waiting for you."

Ballista waited for me to finish getting dressed, we then both ran down to Kook's room, thank the lord, I knew that he was very sick and might not survive, but I had a feeling that he was going to get better. Ballista was right, everyone was stood outside.

"How's Kook doing?" I asked.

"He's doing much better." Madeva replied. "We've all been in to talk to him."

"Is he awake?"

"Yeah, you can go and speak to him if you want."

I was rather nervous now, what if I go in there and Kook's not as well as they say, but Kook seemed like his old self again, he was now able to sit upright, the dark blotches on his skin were starting to fade and he was finally starting to get a bit of colour back in his cheeks, the doctor packed up his things and left the room giving me and Kook some privacy.

"I told you that you'd get better." I said smiling. "So how are you feeling?"

"Much better." Kook replied smiling back. "But the medication's coming back to haunt me." He pointed to a bucket to his left.

"Aw you poor love."

I reached up and ran my hand through his hair, it was all stuck up in all directions he hadn't brushed it for so long.

"I've really missed being with you." I said.

"I've missed you too." Kook replied placing his hand on my cheek.

I leant across and gave Kook a big long kiss, this is the first proper kiss that we've had in a while, when our lips finally parted we spoke for another couple of minutes before Kook's behaviour suddenly changed, he suddenly went all quiet and turned his head to look straight ahead, he placed his hand over his mouth before reaching for the bucket, it wasn't the best thing to do in front of your girlfriend, but I did my best to help him as I kept his hair out of the way and gently rubbed his back as he coughed and spluttered into the bucket, he wasn't in the best of conditions but it was good to have him back.


	20. Chapter 20 Shaiden

**Chapter 20 Shaiden**

It was great to finally have Kook back, it took him a good 4 days to fully recover, but he was very weak after the plague, but things were finally starting to cheer up around here, it was coming up to the middle of summer and it was nearly time for the yearly summer ball, we have a ball every year during the summer, to celebrate all the good things that have happened throughout the year, there was loads to do leading up to the ball, what would normally happen is that half of us would help with the preparations, while the rest of us are on duty, then after a few hours we'd swap over, just like our morning duties now, now that there was more of us we would finally be able to get everything done much quicker.

One morning it was me, Kookaburra, Nightingale, Ballista, Tinkor and Madeva getting a few things ready, we split into 3 groups of 2 and spread ourselves around the room, me and Nightingale were both sorting out the decorations, I stood up onto a nearby stool to reach higher, Nightingale was holding the other end of the banner and was directing me which way to place it.

"Left a bit...bit more...up slightly...yeah, that's good." She said.

Slowly, I got back down and moved the stool to the other side, so I could get the other side up, again Nightingale was stood directing me, we had a rather good little system going.

"Are you sure that you don't want me to do that?" she asked.

"No, it's alright, I'm fine." I replied. "What do you think? Up a bit? Left a bit?"

"Erm...just bring it down slightly and to the left...yeah, that's perfect."

I secured the banner tightly onto the wall before stepping down from the stool and stepping back to look at the banner from the distance.

"Yeah, that looks alright." I said.

There was still loads to do, so we wasted no time to get as much finished that we could do. We switched around so now me and Nightingale were arranging the flowers that were displayed around the room, we were working very hard before Nightingale suddenly stopped.

"What's up Nightingale?" I asked.

"Nothing." She replied smiling.

I looked behind me to see what she was looking at and Kook and Madeva were putting up the decorations.

"So you still have a crush on Kook then?"

"Yeah."

"You do know that the king's probably not going to change the rules any time soon."

"Yeah, I know that, but I don't really care."

Wow, she really does like him, I mean really really does like him. I remember when I had a boyfriend a couple of years ago, he was all very sweet and very good looking but he just wasn't the one for me, and he must have thought that I wasn't the girl for him, as I gathered when he dumped me.

We were in the great hall preparing it for the ball for around 2 hours before we went back to our duties and the others took our place for another 2 hours, after they'd all come back to the duties, I felt the need to share what Nightingale had told me in the great hall while we were arranging the flowers.

"Guys, are any of you aware that Nightingale still has a crush on Kook?" I asked.

"Yeah." Said Ballista

"No." Said Skabb.

"Well now you know."

"Why are you even asking us this?"

"It's just that Nightingale told me that she still has a crush on Kook while we were in the great hall." I paused before I had an amazing but also bizarre idea. "Do you think that the king would get rid of the rule on defenders can't be in relationships?"

"No, I don't think that so. He's not really the kind of person who would go and change his mind so quickly, I don't think that that rule has been changed here for years."

Well it was worth thinking about, I looked up at the lookout tower and I could just make out Nightingale and Kook at the top talking to each other, I feel sorry for them both, they both like each other, neither of them have any idea about that, and they can't be together anyway even if they did know, I thought that it would be best if I went to speak to them about this.

"I'm just going to go and speak to Nightingale and Kook, I won't be long." I told the others.

"Okay."

I put my weapon down and walked to the lookout tower, it was a fair walk from where I was, but I had to get this off my mind, it was around 10 minutes until I actually got to the lookout tower but I still had all the steps to go up first, I could still see Nightingale and Kook at the top still talking, halfway up the steps and my legs started to ache and my lungs started to burn, I had to stop for a couple of minutes and get my breath back, when I finally did, I slowly walked up the remaining steps, I was again out of breath then I got to the top, I placed my hands on my knees and looked to the ground as I got my breath back, but I had a bit of a shock when I looked up from the ground, Nightingale and Kook were right in front of me, but they weren't talking anymore, at first I thought that they were hugging because they were so close to each other, but when I looked at their heads, I saw something that I really wasn't expecting to see, they were...kissing?

"Okay, what's going on here?" I asked shocked, Nightingale and Kook were also shocked as I gathered when they jumped out of their skin.

"Shaiden what are you doing up here?" Nightingale asked.

"I think that the most important question is what are you two doing?"

"We...err...we were...erm..."

It was obvious that they were nervous about telling me the truth, so I decided to calm them down, and show them that I just want to know, as I'm curious.

"Look, you don't have to be nervous, I'm not angry, I'm just a bit surprised, and I just want to know what's going ton. Have you two been lying to us this whole time?"

They were both silent for around five seconds before they gave their answer.

"Erm...well, the thing is Shaiden...err...we've been in a secret relationship for nearly a year now, we didn't want anyone to know, will you promise us that you won't tell anyone about what you saw?"

"I don't know. I want to tell the others, but I don't want to make you two unhappy...alright. I won't tell anyone, ninja's promise. But don't you think that it may be best if you told the others, it'll be much less to hide."

"Well, three of the others already know."

"Who?"

"Faetal, Ballista and Vane."

"How long have they known for?"

"A few months."

"And I take it that they promised not to tell anyone."

"Yep."

This was all very sudden, Nightingale and Kook have been lying to us all this time, and I was also surprised with the fact that Faetal, Ballista and Vane have also known all this time. I must have been talking to Nightingale and Kookaburra for around thirty minutes before I went back to my duty, I had to talk to Faetal, Ballista and vane about this secret, Ballista was the first one of them that I saw.

"Ballista, can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked.

"Course."

"I've just been talking to Nightingale and Kook and they've told me that you, Faetal and Vane are hiding a secret."

"Erm...yeah, that's true."

"What is it?"

"Oh...I can't tell you."

"Is it the fact that Nightingale and Kook happen to be in a relationship right now?"

"How do you know?"

"Ah ha, so it is that."

"Damn, you're good. Yeah, that's it. How did you find out?"

"I saw Nightingale and Kook kissing when I went to talk to them, they told me the truth."

"And I take it that you've promised to them that you're not going to tell anyone?"

"Yeah, we're on the same team now."

My emotions were all jumbled up, I was happy because Nightingale and Kook are finally together, I was angry because they've been lying to us, I was sad because I had a feeling that this probably isn't going to last long for Nightingale and Kook and I feel sorry for them, but those were all overtaken by my excitement of the summer ball vastly approaching.

The great hall was nearing completion, there was just a few small decorations to put up, me and Faetal were putting up a few streamers talking about the summer ball when Faetal suddenly changed the subject.

"So what do you think about Nightingale and Kook dating?" she asked.

"Oh...erm...yeah, I think it's sweet."

"Yeah, they just seem to be the perfect couple. They're so sweet to watch."

"Yeah."

"Do you think that Kook will ask Nightingale to dance with him at the ball?"

"Hm...maybe not."

"Oh yeah, because he won't be able to ask her for a dance without giving away the fact that they're dating, by the way what are you going to be wearing at the ball?"

"You'll just have to wait and see."

After another three hours work the great hall was not full of life and had the look of summer, ready for the summer ball.


	21. Chapter 21 Kookaburra

**Chapter 21 Kookaburra**

The great hall was now fully decorated and the catering was now taken care of, and the summer ball was pretty much the next day, we'd all got our outfits ready and fitted, us guys all had our suits, and the girls all had their gowns, I couldn't wait to see what Nightingale was going to be wearing.

On the evening of the ball me and the rest of the guys were the first ones there, the boys always have to be there before the girls, that's the way that it's always been, I was the fourth on in, Gildar, Thorne and Skabb were already there, they all looked extremely smart and different in their suits, I'm normally so used to seeing them in their everyday clothes, they all seemed almost unrecognisable, Vane was the next one in."

"Looking good Vane." I said.

"Same to you. Nightingale's not safe tonight."

"Shut up, there's nothing like that going on between us."

The rest of the guys weren't that long, but we still had a fair while to wait until the girls arrived, we were talking amongst ourselves before the doors of the great hall opened again and both Knightriss and Madeva walked into the room, Knightriss was wearing a long navy blue dress that came down to just above her ankles, it wasn't very often that you see her in a dress, Madeva's dress was slightly the same, except it was a lighter shade of blue and came down over her feet and to the floor, some of the guys were stood slightly open mouthed but I wasn't interested, I just wanted to see what Nightingale was wearing.

Ballista was the next one in, her dress was the same colour as her hair and came down right to the ground, the rim of her dress and across the top of her dress was decorated with a small amount of white lace, her dress was fitted from the top to her hips, below that the dress flowed out to the width of her shoulders, Gildar was slightly hypnotized by how she looked, but again I wasn't bothered.

Shaiden, Crocness and Faetal all came in in one group of three, Shaiden was wearing a long silk light blue dress that came down to above her ankles and had a white belt around her waist, her hair was now no longer in a pony tail, and was now hanging loose, and was falling neatly over her shoulders, Crocness's dress was a number of different shades of green, it was mainly dark green but the rim of the dress was a slightly lighter shade and had a light green pattern above fading into the dark green, the bottom of the dress was shaped slightly like a house, it came out at the hips but then went straight at around shoulder length, Faetal's dress was shades of red and orange, it was red from the top down to but at hip height the red fabric parted down the middle showing orange fabric with a dark red pattern, the rim of the dress and the dresses sleeves were decorated with lace, and a lace collar, every single of the guys were looking at them, but still I wasn't interested.

All of the girls were here except for Nightingale, she was taking a bit too long, the king was going to be arriving soon, and the king was always the last one to arrive, while we were waiting for Nightingale I was talking to some of the others.

"Did either of you girls see Nightingale while you were on your way here?" I asked Ballista and Shaiden.

"No, she was still in her room when we came here." Ballista replied.

"I'm just a bit worried about her that's all, it's not like her to be late, I mean, the king's going to be here in ten minutes."

I was so engrossed with my conversation between the two girls that I didn't even hear the doors open, no more than two seconds after the doors opened I heard Thorne gasp.

"Wow, she looks amazing." He said.

I turned towards the door to see what had shocked Thorne, obviously it was Nightingale, and Thorne was right, she looked stunning, she was wearing a black dress, decorated with gold and silver patterns, the fabric parted at hip height at the front revealing silver fabric underneath decorated with a black pattern, the bottom came down past her feet, to the floor and was trailing slightly behind her, the top of her dress started just above her chest, around her neck she had a small Pearl necklace, she was wearing earrings which were styled like feathers, black of course, and on her hands she had some fishnet gloves that went up past her elbows, she was the most beautiful that I've ever seen her, she walked towards us and I could hear her high heels on the stone floor.

"You look amazing." I whispered.

"Thanks, you look very handsome in your suit too." she replied, checking that no one was watching and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

Five minutes later we were still waiting for the king, we were starting to get a bit impatient, but that was until the fanfare started to play, the great hall doors opened and the king walked into the room, as soon as the king entered the room we all bowed or curtsied. The ball could now commence.

After one and a half hours of the ball being in full swing, we were all having a fantastic time, there were some occasions when there was solo dances or group dances, when we were two hours into the ball, everyone got onto the dance floor for the upcoming dance, during this dance we were going to be dancing in pairs, but would change partners a number of times during the dance, I started off dancing with Faetal, I couldn't be with Nightingale all evening, people would get suspicious, but it didn't seem right when I was dancing with Faetal, it felt almost like I was cheating on Nightingale, three minutes later we changed partners, I was now dancing with Nightingale.

"You're a really good dancer." she said smiling.

"Thanks, you're quite good at dancing yourself."

"Stop it, I really can't dance."

"You're dancing now."

"Yeah, this is the only dance that I can do."

"So you can dance then?"

"Yes...no...I don't know, you're confusing me."

I smiled, looked around us to make sure that no one was watching us, and gave Nightingale a quick kiss on the lips.

The whole evening just flew by and before I knew it it was nearly the end of the ball, me and Nightingale had gone to one side to have a little rest along with a few of the others, Vane was on my left and Shaiden was to my right, Nightingale was to the right of Shaiden.

Nightingale sighed. "I'm exhausted."

"We all are." Shaiden replied.

Nightingale smiled, moved a stray strand of her hair behind her ear, sighed again and placed her hand onto her forehead.

"My head really hurts." she said.

"How much have you had to drink?"

"Not a lot, but I don't normally drink that much, so I'm not really that used to it."

"Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

Before long people were starting to leave the great hall and go to bed, mind you it was probably 11 o'clock at night by now, Shaiden, Gildar, Tinkor, Knightriss, Ballista and Madeva had all gone to bed, as every minute went by I could feel my eyelids getting heavier and heavier, but I was slightly worried about Nightingale, she didn't look that well, I was stood talking to Skabb and Thorne when I looked to my right and Nightingale was sat on her own resting her head in her hands, I went over to see if she was alright.

"You alright babe?" I asked.

"No, I feel awful. My head's pounding, I only had three glasses of wine."

"Don't you think that it'll be best if you went to bed?"

"Yeah okay."

She slowly stood up to go back to her room, as she got onto her feet she started to wobble and sway, I quickly grabbed her stopping her from falling flat on her face.

"Are you sure that you're going to be alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Walking all the way to the other side of the castle to your room, by yourself, in this state?"

"Yeah, I can see your point."

"I'll walk you to your room."

"Thanks Kook."

I wrapped mt right arm around her and took hold of her left hand keeping her steady, as we were walking down the corridors there was a few stumbles, but I kept her steady, it was when we were a quarter of the way there when Nightingale stopped, closed her eyes and placed her right hand on her forehead.

"Headache?" I asked.

"Yeah, and a bit of lightheadedness."

"Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

We carried on walking, we were starting to approach some of the bedrooms, I could hear some snoring coming from behind some of the doors, we'd had to slow down slightly as Nightingale was starting to feel dizzy as well as light headed, and it was on that corner leading to one of the many staircases when she collapsed on the floor.

"Nightingale, babes are you alright?" I said panicking.

She's only fainted which was fine, I scooped her in my arms and started carrying her in my arms, we were only half way to her room, until my arms started to ache, I couldn't carry her all the way to her room, it was too far, we still had a number of flights of stairs to go up and down and down a number of corridors until we got there, I didn't know where to take her or what to do, I gently placed her down as I thought, I then got an idea that was brilliant but also a bit wacky, my room wasn't that far from here, I could let Nightingale sleep there for the night, or until she wakes up, that seemed alright, so I picked her up again and carried her to my room.

When we arrived, I gently laid her down in my nest and went to one side sitting on a nearby chair and just sat there for a while watching her, she looked so peaceful, after thirty minutes of watching Nightingale I checked to see what time it was, it was nearly midnight, I had to sleep somewhere but there was nowhere else for me to sleep, there was only one solution, I'll have to sleep in my nest with Nightingale, this made me feel very very uncomfortable.

I slowly settled down into my nest next to Nightingale, she was still fast asleep, I've never done this before, I just hope that she doesn't wake up in the middle of the night, that'll really freak her out, and another thing, I hope that no one wants to talk to me during the night and sees me here with Nightingale.

As I lowered myself down next to her timidly, I got a blanket and gently put it over Nightingale's body, then getting another blanket I covered my own body, it took me a while to get to sleep knowing that i was in the same nest as Nightingale, I could hear her breathing next to me and I could feel the heat from her body, I shut my eyes tight and tried my best to not think about her, that worked perfectly and I soon fell asleep, this is really going to come back to haunt me.


	22. Chapter 22 Nightingale

**Chapter 22 Nightingale**

My head was pounding when I woke up, my vision was slightly blurred, but I could just make out a few shapes as my eyes came into focus, when I could see everything clearly I didn't fully recognise where I was, this wasn't my room, not everything was in the right place, and the sun was coming through the wrong window, what happened last night is very clear apart from when Kook was walking me back to my room, after that it's just a complete blank.

"Oh my head." I said sitting up, as I sat up I realised that I was still in my dress from last night. "What happened?"

"Are you feeling alright babe?" I heard Kook say to my right, I wasn't expecting him to be here.

"Where I am? This looks a bit unfamiliar." I asked him.

"Erm...well, when I was walking you back to your room, you sort of fainted half way there, I tried carrying you there, but I couldn't carry you all that way, so I brought you here to my room." Kook explained.

"I'm in your room? And I've just spent the whole night sleeping in your nest?"

"Yeah."

"But if I was sleeping here, where did you sleep?"

"In my nest."

"You mean...with me?"

"Yeah, I know, I'm as freaked out as you are, but there was no other option."

Oh my God, I've not only spent the entire night sleeping in Kook's nest, but I've been sleeping in the same nest as him. Very timidly and cautiously I got up and out of Kook's nest, I could almost not look at him, I picked up my high heels that were just to my left, smoothed my hair and dress down slightly, before finally speaking.

"Well...I err...I better get going to my room and get changed."

"Okay, let me just make sure that the corridors are clear."

Kook slowly opened his bedroom door and looked both left and right making sure that there wasn;t anyone on the corridors, there wasn't so Kook quickly finished getting himself dressed and walked me to my room, checking that there wasn't anyone behind the corners or down the corridors as we walked, it felt like we were secret agents on a mission.

We were half way to my room when Kook stopped and looked around the corner, he shot back round and stood with him back flat against the wall, he pulled me towards him so I did the same.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Shh." Kook replied sharply, placing one of his fingers on my lips silencing me.

Obeying, I was silent, after three seconds of silence two soldiers walked past, they stopped as they were level with us, I held my breath until they walked away in the opposite direction, Kook then grabbed my hand and pulled me quickly around the corner, we still had a maze of corridors to go down until we safely got to my room.

We were nearing the corridor which my room was at, but we were faced with a deeper problem, there was another soldier stood not that far from us, luckily his back was facing us so we had a bit more time to hide, Kook looked to his right and there was a narrow dark corridor either side of us, one would probably be wide enough for both of us, it was a tight squeeze but we both made it, Kook squeezed past me to see whether the soldier was gone he wasn't so we still had to wait.

"Is he gone?" I asked.

"No."

I sighed and rested my body against the wall, I looked to my left and there was nothing but darkness, I looked to my right an Kook was still watching the soldier, I sighed again and looked to my left again, this time I held my gaze, after three seconds i felt something touch my shoulder.

"Kook, let go of my shoulder." I whispered.

"I'm not touching your soldier." Kook replied.

"Well what is?"

Kook looked over at me and stopped stone still.

"Don't move." he whispered.

"Why?"

Very slowly, I lowered my head and looked at my shoulder, sat on my shoulder was the largest spider that I have ever seen, it was just perched on my shoulder doing nothing, this wasn't good for me as I had Arachnophobia, I opened my mouth to scream but Kook jumped forward and placed his hand over my mouth to stop me.

"Stay still." he said.

He reached for the spider and gently took it off my shoulder, I was still shaking and sweating from the experience, when the spider had been removed from my shoulder, Kook placed it on the wall further down the corridor.

"Are you alright?" Kook asked. "You look very pale."

I looked at my hands and they were almost white with fear.

"I can't stand spiders." I replied.

"That little thing was nothing, I've seen spiders that are way bigger than that one."

I shuddered at the thought, just thinking about spiders made me feel cold, Kook squeezed past me again and checked on the soldier, this time he was gone so we were safe to carry on walking.

It was another five minutes until we finally got to my room, we walked in and I could finally sit down, Kook went to wait outside so that I could get changed, it was good to finally get out of this dress and into my everyday dress.

When I opened my bedroom door to leave, Kook was still there.

"I kinda preferred you in that ballroom gown." he said.

I smiled, walked over to him and gave him a quick gentle kiss, we then walked all the way back to the king's quarters where everyone was waiting.

"There you two are, we were wondering what was keeping you." said Skabb.

"I was on my way here when I thought that I might as well walk down here with Nightingale, so I went to wait for her." Kook lied.

We had another two minutes to wait before we could enter the room, so I was talking to Ballista, Faetal and Shaiden about the ball last night.

"What did you guys think about the ball last night?" I asked.

"I really enjoyed myself." Faetal replied. "What happened to you though? You suddenly disappeared after 11 o'clock."

"Oh, I wasn't feeling that good so Kook walked me to my room...well...he was going to, but apparently I fainted half way there, and he couldn't carry me all the way to my room so he took me to his room, and I spent the rest of the night sleeping in his nest."

"But where did he sleep?"

"In the nest with me."

"What?"

"There was nowhere else for him to sleep, he had no other option."

"Did you?" Ballista asked.

"Did we what?"

"You know, you were sleeping in the same nest together, you must have done."

"What, no. No we wouldn't do that, I was unconscious all night."

"How do you know that you didn't when you were unconscious?"

"Don't be disgusting, Kook would never do that."

I was relieved when we could finish the conversation and enter the room, why would they think that me and Kook would do that, we can't do that anyway until we get married...that is, if we even decide to get married, now after what had happened last night, and what the girls said, I'm probably never going to look at Kook the same way ever again, we were both extremely quiet on lookout duty that morning, we didn't even give each other much eye contact, I guess that Kook is still slightly embarrassed from what happened last night, especially when I told him about the little conversation that went on between me and the girls.


	23. Chapter 23 Gildar

**Chapter 23 Gildar**

Everyone was still rather tired from the ball yesterday, my head was still pounding, but it wasn't stopping me from working, the day was going smoothly when it was suddenly interuppted with a message, it had to be delivered to Kookaburra.

"Gildar, could you take this message to Kook?" Vane asked.

"What is it?"

"It's a letter from his parents, I think it's pretty urgent."

"Alright."

I took the letter from Vane and went to deliver it to Kook, I was half running, half walking, because I wanted to get this message to Kook as quickly as possible, I dashed up the tower steps to the top, when I got there, my vision was blurred and my lungs and legs were burning, when my eyes came into focus I just saw Nightingale in front of me, I looked around and Kook wasn't there.

"Nightingale. Do you know where Kook is, I've got a message for him?" I asked.

Nightingale spun round to look at me. "Oh, yes. He's just gone back to his room, he'd forgotten something and he's just gone to get it.

"Thanks."

I turned around and dashed back down the steps trying my best not to fall, I had to get to Kook's room before he'd got there and gone back, but luckily I knew a shortcut. Instead of turning left on the main corridor I turned right, these corridors were all dark, unused and full of cobwebs but it was the quickest way there.

When I finally arrived, out of breath, I knocked on the door to check if Kook was there.

"Kook, are you in? I've got a message for you, it's from your parents."

There was no answer, so I opened the door and went to place the letter in Kook's nest that way he'd see it when he came in, this seemed like a good idea, but when I placed the letter down, something caught my eye, stuck in between some of the twigs of Kook's nest was a long black feather, I picked it up to look at it better, I recognise this feather, this is one of Nightingale's feathers, what would one of Nightingale's feathers be doing in Kook's nest? I know that this is definitely Kook's room, so I haven't got the rooms mixed around, I was still trying to figure out what was going on when Kook walked into the room.

"Gildar, what are you doing in here?" He asked.

"Oh sorry Kook, I was just delivering this letter to you." I replied picking the letter back up and handing it to Kook. "But when I put it in your nest I found this feather in the twigs, is there something going on?"

"Err...I don't know, I didn't even know that was there."

"But you do know how it got there though don't you?"

"No."

"Yes you do, there's something that you're not telling us."

"Who are you my mother?"

"Come on Kook, I won't be able to sleep until I find out what one of Nightingale's feathers was doing in your nest."

Kook sighed deeply, lowered his head and gave his answer.

"Last night, I was walking Nightingale back to her room from the ball when she fainted half way, I tried carrying her all the way to her room but I couldn't so I brought her in here and she spent the rest of the night sleeping in my nest, that's why one of her feathers was there, there I said it."

"But why did you bring her here in the first place, it's not like your dating or anything are you?" Kook lowered his head again. "Are you?" I then realised what was going on. "You and Nightingale aren't dating in secret are you?"

Kook took a lot longer to give his answer this time, and I could see that he was nervous.

"Kook, buddy it's alright, I'm not angry, I just want to know, and if you don't want me to tell anyone then I won't."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Kook sighed. "Alright, I might as well tell you the truth, you were bound to find out soon enough. Me and Nightingale have been dating in secret for over a year, only Ballista, Faetal, Vane, Shaiden and you now know, and we'd very much like to keep it that way."

"There, you see. It wasn't that hard, and don't worry, I won't tell a single soul about what you've just told me."

"Thanks mate."

"So what's the letter then?"

"I don't know I haven't opened it yet."

Kook quickly tore the letter open and read it with care, taking in every single bit of detail, he was smiling when he first opened the letter but that smile soon faded into a frown as he got half way down.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's from my mum and dad." Kook replied. "My dad's very sick, they'd like me to go over there and see them, and the doctor's told them that he may be dying."

"Oh God."

Kook wasn't the only one who was concerned about his dad, I was also as concerned as he was and I didn't even know him that well. Me and Kook walked back to the lookout tower together Kook was silent the whole way, anything that I said was just replied with a yes or a no, occasionally a maybe.

I wanted to talk to Nightingale about the relationship that her and Kook were having, so I went back up the lookout tower with Kook.

"Hey babe." said Kook when we got to the top.

Nightingale spun around to say hello back, but she froze when she saw me.

"Erm...Kook...you do know that Gildar's with you don't you?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's alright, he knows." Kook replied.

"Well why don't we just announce it to the whole kingdom?"

"Be easy Nightingale, Kook's just heard some bad news." I said.

Nightingale's whole mood changed, she changed from this angry, frustrated person, to concerned, calm and considerate person. "What is it?" she asked.

"I've just got a letter from my parents." Kook replied.

"What's bad about that?"

"My dad's very sick, and they think that he may be dying."

"Well you should go and see them then."

"Would you be alright without me for a while?"

"Yeah, don't worry, I'll survive. Besides, your family need you."

"Okay."

Kook walked over to Nightingale, gave her a long hug and a gentle kiss, watching them made me feel quite emotional, I've never really been in love before, and seeing Nightingale and Kook like this made me feel rather lonely, as I watched I could feel the tears stinging my eyes.

"You alright Gildar?" Kook asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I've just got something in my eye."

I left Nightingale and Kookaburra on their own and went back to my duty, everyone was in the same places that they were when I left to give Kook the message.

"What kept you?" Crocness asked.

"I was a bit busy talking to Kook." I replied.

"Did he tell you what the message was about?"

"Yeah, apparently it was from his parents, his dad's very sick and may be dying, they want him to go back to Australia for a while to visit them."

"And is he?"

"Yeah."

"Oh my God, poor Kook."

I looked to my left and Vane was stood on his own, I wasn't sure if Kook was bluffing or not about Vane, Faetal, Ballista and Shaiden also knowing, so I went over to question Vane about it.

"Hey Vane." I said standing next to him.

"Oh hey. " Vane replied.

"Vane, there's something that I need to talk to you about."

"What?"

"It's about Nightingale and Kook being in a relationship."

"Whoa, dude who told you?"

"Kook."

"Oh."

"I just wanted to know whether you, Faetal, Ballista and Shaiden really know, and I take it that you do."

"Yeah, but we promised not to tell anyone."

"So did I."

Kook left the kingdom the very next day, everyone said goodbye and me, Nightingale and Ballista were the last of us to say goodbye.

"When are you going to be back?" Nightingale asked.

"It depends." Kook replied "3 weeks tops."

"I'll never stop thinking about you."

"I'll write to you as often as I can."

Kook looked over our shoulders, there wasn't anyone else behind us, so there was no risk of anyone seeing, Kook wrapped his arms around Nightingale's waist, pulled her towards him and kissed her firmly on the lips, Nightingale also wrapped her arms around Kook's neck, I could feel the tears filling my eyes again, Ballista was feeling the same way.

"You alright?" I asked her.

"Yeah, just got something in my eye."

"Same here."

Nightingale and Kook were still kissing when we turned our attention back to them, they obviously didn't want this moment to end, a few seconds later and their lips finally parted, Kook held Nightingale's hand as he walked away, I watched as his hand slowly slipped out of Nightingale's, Nightingale's eyes started to fill up with tears, so Ballista went over to her to comfort her.

"It's alright Nightingale, he'll be back before you know it." She said.

Kook has been gone for over a week now and he hasn't written, Nightingale was getting anxious and also worried about what may have happened to Kook, we kept on trying to calm her down and reassure her that Kook was fine.

Now that Kook wasn't here at the moment, we all had to take his place on lookout duty and we were all going to take it in turns to help Nightingale on lookout duty, on day nine it was my turn. Nightingale wasn't there when I got to the top, I was slightly confused at first, but she dashed up the stairs five minutes later.

"He's written, I've got a letter from him." She said smiling and waving the piece of paper in the air.

"What does he say?" I asked.

Nightingale unfolded the letter and read every word to me.

_"To my dearest Nightingale. Everything is fine here in Australia, dad seems to be doing better, and the doctor has told us that he will hopefully be as right as rain in a few days, hope that everything's okay back at the castle, and that there's not been any trouble, I'm really missing you and I wish that you were here, you know that I'm not really the kind of guy who can come out with romantic things at the drop of a hat, but if I could, right now you would be the person that I'd say them to. Plenty of love and kisses, Kookaburra."_

"Aw, that's sweet. You see Nightingale, we told you that he'd write soon enough if you gave him enough time. Are you going to write back?"

"Yeah, I've already sent it."

"That was quick."

"The letter arrived last night, I spent around an hour writing my response."

Nightingale looked so happy now that she had a letter from Kook, throughout the day she didn't put the letter down, she just held it close to her chest, I guess that's the closest that she can be to Kook, there was still nearly two weeks or so until Kook may be coming back, but Nightingale seemed to be able to live until then.


	24. Chapter 24 Madeva

**Chapter 24 Madeva**

Gildar, Ballista, Vane, Faetal and Shaiden were all acting very strangely lately, they seemed to be hiding something, along with Nightingale and Kookaburra, I was starting to feel slightly suspicious, there was most definitely something not right, one morning me and Nightingale were the first two outside the king's quarters so I decided to take this opportunity to ask her what was going on.

"Morning." I said, smiling.

"Morning." Nightingale replied.

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah everything's fine."

"Okay, it's just that you seemed a bit upset a few days ago."

"Oh, that was just because I was missing Kook."

"Still have a crush on him then?"

"Yeah."

"By the way, talking of strange behaviour, do you know what's up with Gildar, Ballista, Faetal, Vane and Shaiden?"

"Err...no, why? Have they been behaving weird?

"Yeah, pretty weird. Sort of distracted, like they're hiding something, or that they've got something on their mind."

"Oh, I've never noticed that."

"You've been behaving rather strange lately also, is there something on your mind?"

"Nah, I normally just drift off sometimes, so if I seem like I'm thinking about something, I'm probably just daydreaming, so you know."

"What do you normally daydream about?"

Nightingale was about to give her answer when the others came round the corner, this conversation will have to be continued later.

Later came sooner than I expected, it was my turn to take Kook's place on lookout, Nightingale was up the stairs much quicker than me, I guess that she's used to it, going up these stairs every day, she would normally be rather chatty, that's what Kook told us, but she was much quieter than I expected.

After half an hour on lookout, Nightingale walked over to the right and took something out of her belt pouch, five minutes later she let out a deep sigh.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Oh nothing."

"What've you got in your hands?"

"Nothing."

"You haven't, I saw you take something out of the pouch on your belt, what is it?"

"I told you, it's nothing, it's just a letter."

"Who's it from?"

"Just someone rather close to me?"

"Mum and dad?"

"No, it's someone else."

"Can I see?"

Nightingale quickly hid the piece of paper behind her back.

"No, it's private."

"Please? Is it embarrassing? If it is I promise not to tell anyone about it."

"No, it's not embarrassing I just don't really feel comfortable with showing you."

"What's it about?"

"You're never going to give up are you?"

"No."

Nightingale was silent, and held the piece of paper close to her chest, she was trembling as she slowly lowered it and held it out, handing it to me.

"But promise me that you won't tell anyone about what you've read in this letter."

"Alright, I promise."

I very gently eased the paper out of Nightingale's hands, trying not to tear it, the first thing that I noticed when I looked at the paper was _"To my dearest Nightingale."_ maybe from an ex-boyfriend or something, _"Everything's fine here in Australia."_ Weird, Kook's in Australia at the moment. _"Dad seems to be getting better."_ This is far too much like Kook, _"Plenty of love and kisses, Kookaburra."_

"Is this from Kookaburra?" I asked.

"Err...yeah."

"What's with the "my dearest Nightingale" and "plenty of love and kisses"?"

"Err..."

"I thought that you were just friends with him."

"Well...that was a while ago, and let's say that we've got a bit closer than friends now."

"How close?"

"Boyfriend and girlfriend."

"What? But you'll get the sack if anyone finds out."

"Just promise me that you won't tell anyone about this, please."

"Okay, I guess just me won't hurt."

"That's where you're wrong, Gildar, Ballista, Vane, Faetal and Shaiden also know."

"So that's why they've also been acting strangely?"

"Yeah, I couldn't tell you before, now you know why."

"How long have you and Kook been together?"

"Over a year."

"Wow, and you've kept it quiet for so long."

"I know, it's not been easy."

How could they have kept it so quiet for so long, I don't miss anything, I would have seen them somewhere, they must be better at hiding secrets than they seem, Kook will be getting the surprise of his life when Nightingale tells him about me knowing now too, I don't understand why they don't just tell everyone.

The next day, I was stood with Ballista by the king's quarters waiting for the others and trying my best not to blurt out Nightingale's secret, I'm not really the kind of person who you could trust with a secret.

"What did you and Nightingale talk about yesterday?" Ballista asked.

"Oh, err...nothing important."

I then remembered, Ballista knows about the secret, I can talk to her about it.

"Erm...Ballista, do you know a secret?"

"Maybe...why?"

"Well, yesterday Nightingale told me that you, Gildar, Vane, Faetal and Shaiden all know a secret, and I was wondering what it was."

"Did Nightingale tell you what the secret was?"

"She might have done."

"Erm...yeah, we do know a secret, it's err...about a relationship."

"Would that be Nightingale and Kookaburra's relationship?"

"So Nightingale did tell you."

"And you do know the secret."

"Yeah, are you sure that you're going to be able to keep the secret? I know what you're like now, you're not really the kind of person for keeping secrets."

"Yeah, I know what you mean, but I think that I'll be able to keep my mouth shut long enough. Do you think that Nightingale and Kook are ever going to be able to be in a relationship without hiding?"

"I hope so, they really love each other, it probably wouldn't be right if they didn't stay together."

"They're like our own Romeo and Juliet aren't they?"

"Yeah, they could be. I never noticed that before."

Nightingale got another letter from Kook the next day, his dad had now made a complete recovery and would be able to come back any day now. That morning Nightingale came running over to us with the letter in her hand.

"I've got another letter from Kook." she said smiling.

"What does he say?" Faetal asked.

Nightingale unfolded the paper and read it out to us.

_"Dearest Nightingale. Dad is much better now and I'll be coming back very soon, I've really missed seeing your face, and I can't wait to be with you again, hope that everything's okay with the secret and nothing bad has happened, I wouldn't want to come back to any more bad news. Love and kisses, Kookaburra."_ she read.

"Aw, he really is missing you."

"Yeah, and I'm really missing him."

"Who's the letter from?" Crocness asked from behind us.

Suddenly I forgot that she doesn't know the secret and before I could stop myself I heard myself blurting out. "Kookaburra." Oh no, what have I done?

"What's Kook doing sending you letters Nightingale?"

"Err...I, erm...he..."

She was really struggling to think of an answer, she had a look in her eyes that was screaming, "help me!" I knew that this was all my fault, I didn't know whether I should tell Crocness the truth or to make something up, in order to cover what I said.

"Err, he's sending her letters because he just wants to know how things are going around here, and if there's any news that she can tell him, they're rather good friends so he feels like she's the best person to talk to." Putting in a bit of acting I leant over to her and whispered. "And you know that he's got a crush on her anyway, it's the only way that he can stay in touch with her, he's obviously missing her."

"Oh, right. Sorry to interrupt you, I was just curious."

We all let out a sigh of relief when Crocness walked away, my heart was still pounding and my hands were still sweating, that was a close shave.

"Thanks Madeva." said Nightingale.

"It's alright, it was me who started it, I thought that I might as well finish it."

Kook was going to be back in a couple of days and Nightingale was now getting rather excited about finally seeing him again.

The day grew closer and Kook was going to be back here tomorrow, Nightingale was getting really impatient and just wanted him to hurry up, we've all been like that once, but with Nightingale it was much harder to get her to calm down.

"I just can't wait any longer." she said that morning. "I just want to see him again."

I put my hand on her shoulder.

"We all want to see him again but you'll just have to wait until tomorrow."

Nightingale let out a big sigh, it was my turn to be on lookout with her, and I was grateful that this was going to be the very last time, lookout's just not for me, having to go up and down those stairs twice a day, you'd need really strong legs to get up them every day for a living. Nightingale wouldn't stop going on about Kook all day, every minute she was telling me something that has happened between her and Kook or something that occurred a while back, all the romantic things that Kook has said to her, I was bored up to my mind with it by the end of the day, if this is what she's like the day before Kook gets back what's she going to be like when he gets back?

The next day, Nightingale was at the king's quarters before anyone else, she obviously wanted to get this day started as soon as possible, we were in the king's quarters for around ten minuets, out of the corner of my eye I could see Nightingale twitching her leg, she was very eager to get to the gates so she could see Kook as he walked in.

I was the first one to be on duty at the gates while Knightriss was on her breakfast break, Nightingale was stood with me waiting for Kook to get back, while we were waiting and talking, a messenger came over to us, he had a very important letter for Nightingale.

"Nightingale, I have a very important letter for you." He said handing it over.

"Who's it from?" Nightingale asked.

"That I cannot say."

"Oh okay, well thank you."

Nightingale stood there for around a minute just looking at the envelope.

"Aren't you going to open it? I asked.

"Maybe later, I want to say hi to Kook first."

It was still a good thirty minutes or so until Kook finally got back, when Nightingale saw him walking towards us via the woods, she got all jumpy and excited.

"You'll have to stand back Nightingale so I can open the gates." I warned.

"Okay."

Nightingale took five steps back out of the way of the gates, with a loud creak of the rusted metal they slowly opened and Kook could walk in, when he had taken no more than two steps into the castle he dropped his bags and ran over to Nightingale, he picked her up in his arms spinning around, she giggled as he lifted her off the ground, when Kook saw me by the gate watching them, he froze on the spot and put Nightingale back down.

"It's alright Kook, she knows." Nightingale explained.

"How many other people know?" Kook replied.

"That doesn't matter right now, all that matters to me is that you're back."

Kook smiled, cupped Nightingale under the chin and kissed her gently on the lips, it wasn't long, just about a second long, but a longer kiss cam not long after, Nightingale wrapped her arms around Kook's neck and Kook wrapped his arms around Nightingale's waist, he pulled her close to him this time kissing her firmly. I smiled as I watched them, but out of the corner of my eye I saw someone, I looked to the right and Knightriss was standing there, she was obviously surprised by what she saw, as she was standing stone still.

"Oh no." I said.

Nightingale turned to me in confusion.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

I pointed to Knightriss, they turned towards her and she ran off back inside the castle.

"Oh great. She's going to tell everyone."

"Not on my watch." said Kook, who ran off after Knightriss before we could say anything, Nightingale turned back to me, looked in the direction where Kook and Knightriss had gone and ran after them, I thought for a minute, what am I going to do? First I closed the gate, we wouldn't want anyone getting in, I looked to my left and Kook's things were still there, I might as well take those in for him, they were a bit heavy, but I could manage.

When I walked through the doors, Nightingale and Kook were stood with Knightriss, they looked sad and apologetic, whereas Knightriss seemed angry, concerned and surprised all at the same time, I didn't know whether they had succeeded with stopping her or not from telling the others but no matter what it was it wasn't going to be good.

I put Kook's things down and walked over to them, Knightriss turned around and walked back in the direction I had just come from, she didn't say a thing when she walked past me, this was a bit worrying, i turned back to Nightingale and Kook, Kook had his arm around Nightingale's shoulders, while Nightingale was resting her head on Kook's shoulder.

"It's alright babe, we both knew that this day was going to come." said Kook.

"What's wrong? Did you stop her from telling the others?" I asked.

"No." Nightingale replied. "We were too late, she'd already told everyone by the time we caught up with her."

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright, as long as she doesn't tell the king then we'll be fine."

Despite that they were still safe to be dating, I was still sorry for them, now their secret was out and everyone knew, people were going to be talking about this for days, and I really don't want to think about what Knightriss is going to say to me when I go back to duty.


	25. Chapter 25 Kookaburra

**Chapter 25 Kookaburra**

So much for keeping this a secret, but me and Nightingale both knew that this day was going to come sooner or later, but to be honest, I was rather relieved that the others now know about the relationship it was a real load off my shoulders, we now had much less to worry about, all we had to worry about now was keeping this from the king and the soldiers.

The next morning, we were all having to get up pretty early as the king had some important news to give us, me, Gildar, Nightingale, Crocness, Thorne and Shaiden were the first ones outside the king's quarters, me and Nightingale had walked down here together and we were pretty much expecting what some of them were going to question us about, and we were right, the second we walked around the corner, Crocness was the first one the notice us.

"Here comes Romeo and Juliet." She said.

I groaned, we're never going to hear the end of this.

"Why didn't you guys tell us about this?" Thorne asked.

"We just didn't want anyone to know, we knew that you were going to be like this if we did tell you." Nightingale replied.

"Plus we thought that most of you may go and tell the king." I added

"If you didn't want us to tell anyone we wouldn't have, we're really pleased for you two, we both know how much you both wanted to be together." Said Crocness.

Crocness and Thorne weren't the only ones to question me and Nightingale about our relationship, Skabb, and Tinkor also asked us a few questions, Knightriss wasn't speaking to us much, I take it that she's still a bit mad at us, it's fair to say that she's like to lead defender, and so was a bit mad at us for breaking the rules and for lying this whole time.

When we walked inside the king's quarters he was stood by the window behind his desk with a letter in one hand and another piece of paper in the other hand which seemed to be a painting, it was hard to tell what his emotions were for two reasons, one his face wasn't really showing any emotions and two we couldn't see his face that well anyway.

"Morning your highness." We all said bowing and curtseying.

"Morning everyone, I have some very good news." The king replied.

This is a change, normally when the king has important it's mostly bad, so what could be so good and so important that we had to be here at this early?

"As you all know, we're now free from any more attacks from the kingdom of Splazzer City, well we have decided to bring the peace between our two kingdoms forever, and the king of Splazzer City would like me to marry his daughter, the princess Beatrice."

"Congratulations sire." Said Ballista.

We were over the moon with this news, the king is to be marrying the princess Beatrice, and I must say, she is a real beaut, I've seen her painting before. The wedding was already planned and was going to be in 3 months time, there was lots to get through leading up to that day.

Three days after the king had given out the news that he was to be married, the stocks in the kitchen were getting rather low, so some of us were sent out into the woods to collect more stock again, me, Nightingale, Gildar, Ballista and Skabb were sent into the woods, Gildar, Ballista and Skabb were going to be hunting whereas me and Nightingale were going to be collecting what we could find of the fruits, nuts and berries around the woods, it was rather early in the year so there wasn't that much to collect, but we did quite well considering.

We had been wandering around together for around two hours when we came to a clearing, the sun was shining bright above us, and flowers covered the grass, we were rather tired from walking around all this time, we put our baskets down and went to lie down, I took Nightingale's hand and walked her to the middle of the clearing, we both sat down on the soft grass, I turned to face the opposite way as Nightingale and leant back slightly so I could still see her face, the sunlight lit her face up perfectly and shone bright in her eyes, I must have been looking at her around 5 minutes before having a look around us, birds were singing in the trees and butterflies were fluttering from flower to flower, I leant back further laying down completely looking up and the sky, there wasn't a cloud in view, turning my attention back to Nightingale, she was looking at her hands, she had a few stains on her fingers from when she'd been picking some of the berries, she reached into the pouch on her belt and brought out a small handkerchief, but as she pulled it out a battered and bent envelope also fell out.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Oh, I forgot all about this. It was given to me yesterday while I was waiting for you to get back, I said that I was going to open it later."

"Who's it from?"

"I don't know yet."

"Well open it and see."

Slowly Nightingale opened the envelope and brought out a small piece of paper, she had a look of confusion on her face first of all, but that look soon melted away and changed to a look of shock and surprise.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's from my ex-boyfriend, Raven."

"What does he say?"

Nightingale swallowed and sighed deeply before reading out the letter.

_"Dear Nightingale. It's been a long time since we've spoken, and even longer since we've seen each other, I heard from your sister about where you are now, and I thought that I might visit you so I could finally see your face again, if you don't want to see me then just let me know, I won't mind, but it would be nice just to hear from you again, even better if I could see your face and actually hear your voice. Just think about it. From Raven. X."_ She read.

"So what are you going to do?" I asked.

"I don't know. It's been so long since I've seen him."

She put the letter back in her pouch and lay down on the grass looking up at the sky, I did the same laying in the opposite direction but made sure that my head was level with hers.

"Why haven't you spoken to him for a while?"

"I don't know, he just suddenly stopped sending me letters."

"Was that when you broke up when he stopped talking to you?"

"No, we were in a relationship for around 5 months, we then decided that it wasn't going to work between us, plus my dad had scared him off, when we broke up we didn't speak for around a month, but he then sent a letter one day out of the blue, we continued sending letters to each other for around another 5 months, then he stopped talking to me, and not that long after that I met you, that made me feel loads better."

I smiled. "So why don't you send him a letter back, it might cheer him up, he must be missing you, that's why he'd like to see you, don't you feel the same way?"

"Yeah, to be honest, I do. But I don't feel comfortable with seeing him."

"Then just send him a letter."

"I don't know."

"Well whatever you do babe, I know that you'll be doing the right thing."

I leant over to her and kissed her gently on the end of her nose, she giggled and ran her hand through my hair, I leant forward a bit more to her lips, we sat up slightly so we could embrace this moment, I ran my right hand down her right arm and onto her waist, time suddenly stood still, with my left arm I wrapped it around Nightingale and placed my left hand against her back she groaned as I pressed my body against hers, she tilted her head to the right and wrapped her arms around my neck, I could feel her heart beating faster and her lips slide against mine, my tongue pressed gently against her lips as she opened her mouth inviting me in, her tongue gracefully moved along with mine, I've never felt this way before, the thoughts going through my mind were hard to explain, my heart was pounding and my palms began to sweat, moving my left hand from Nightingale's back to the ground, I leant forward even more making Nightingale lean back until she was lying flat on the ground, she moved her arms away from my neck and ran her hands through my hair once more, Nightingale sighed as our lips finally parted.

We were lying in the clearing for around 30 minutes, Nightingale lay with her head resting on my chest while I was holding her hand.

"I've decided that I'm going to let Raven visit." She said suddenly, breaking the silence.

"What made you change your mind?"

"I was just thinking that it's been a long time since I've seen him, and I might as well see what he really wants, he might want to get back together with me, I'll need to tell him face to face."

As long as Nightingale feels comfortable with her ex visiting, I was also fine with it. After another ten minutes we picked the baskets back up and walked back to the castle, hand in hand, Gildar, Ballista and Skabb were also walking back to the castle, they'd had some success too with their task, we caught up with them and walked back to the castle with them.

"So what have you two been up to apart from your given task?" Ballista asked.

"Nothing important." I replied.

"Kook, is that lipstick in the corner of your mouth?"

"What?"

I quickly wiped the corner of my mouth, when there was no lipstick left on my hand I realised that it was a trick.

"Gotcha." Said Gildar smiling. "Come on, what else have you been doing?"

"We were just relaxing in s clearing not that far from here for forty minutes or so."

"But what were you really doing?"

"Just talking."

"Oh, and I got a letter from my ex boyfriend." Said Nightingale.

"We didn't know that you have an ex."

"Yeah, we stopped communicating a while, and he sent me a letter yesterday, I've only just opened it now."

"What did he say?"

"He said that he really wants to see me again and was wondering if he could visit the castle to see me, I've decided to write back to him saying that I'd like to see him too.

"What's his name?"

"His name's Raven."

"Cool name."

The thought of Nightingale's ex coming to the castle made me feel weird, what if he tries to get back together with her, she might go with him and leave me, I couldn't live with that.

Nightingale sent her letter the next day, it was going to be a while until she heard from Raven again, but at least it would give us enough time to prepare for him, and sort of know what he's like. The reply to Nightingale's letter came three days later.

"He's replied." She said that morning.

"What does he say?" I asked.

_"Dear Nightingale. It was so good to hear from you again, and I can't wait to see you again, by the time you're reading this, I'll be around 3 days from arriving, your sister told me that you've got yourself a new fella, I wouldn't mind meeting him, he seems like a good guy from what your sister told me about him. See you in a few days, Raven."_ She read.

"Three days away?" I asked.

"Yeah, don't worry about him, he may seem like a really tough guy at first glance, but he's a really friendly gentle guy once you get to know him."

I hope that Nightingale's right, if he's bigger and stronger than me I'm going to be like a mouse to a cat, vulnerable.

Those three days came and went sooner than we expected, the morning that Raven was going to arrive me and Nightingale were both stood by the castle gates, Nightingale was very impatient and nervous and was pacing up and down.

"Babe, just calm down, you're getting too worked up." I said wrapping my arms around her.

"I know, it's just that, I've not seen him for years, what if he's changed?"

"I'm sure that it's not going to be that bad if he has."

Nightingale wasn't the only one who was nervous, I was as worried as she was, I didn't even know the guy, I didn't know what to expect, but my curiosity was soon dismissed when he finally arrived, he looked exactly the way Nightingale had described him the day before, he was wearing black clothes, he had a black cloak draped over his shoulders, he had black leather boots and leather gloves, and the neck of his top was decorated with black feathers, he wasn't that much taller than me so that wasn't a problem, he looked tough but was he really, I guess that I'll be finding out soon enough.

Knightriss and Madeva let him into the castle and he slowly walked over to us, he put his case down and walked over to Nightingale, threw her arms around her, Nightingale didn't move a muscle, her arms remained at her sides, the only change was her eyes, they were now wide with shock.

"It's so good to see you again Nightingale." Said Raven.

"You too Raven." Nightingale replied.

"I've got to say though Nightingale, this is a really impressive place."

"I'm glad you think so, I'm really proud to be working here, I'll give you a tour later if you want."

"Yeah, okay."

He turned towards me.

"You must be Nightingale's new boyfriend." He said holding his hand out.

"Yeah that's me, the name's Kookaburra, but you can call me Kook if you want."

"Well it's wonderful to meet you Kook."

He smiled, his teeth were pure white, even whiter than Nightingale's, that most definitely wasn't natural, but I smiled back not wanting to be rude.

"Wonderful to meet you too Raven." I said shaking his hand.

"So, how about that tour then?" Nightingale asked.

"Okay." Raven replied picking up his case again.

I watched as Nightingale and Raven walked back into the castle, they looked almost identical, they could easily be mistaken for brother and sister, I would if I didn't know them. raven seems like a really nicer bloke, maybe there really is nothing to worry about, but I just had a feeling down in the pit of my stomach which made me think that something bad was bound to happen over these next few days.


	26. Chapter 26 Nightingale

**Chapter 26 Nightingale**

The fact that my ex-boyfriend was here made me feel very uncomfortable, he's obviously here for just the one reason, he most likely want to get back together with me, I'll have to tell him about me and Kook before anything gets too complicated.

"Raven, you know that me and Kook are in a relationship right?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, we're not really supposed to be in a relationship as it's against the rules so don't go talking to the guards or the king about it."

"Okay."

"Plus, me and Kook are really close so don't go messing things up for us."

"Why would I do that?"

"Well…I just had this feeling that you were coming here just to try getting back together with me."

"What? No, I wouldn't do that, I was missing you that's all and I just wanted to see you again."

I wasn't totally convinced that Raven wasn't going to attempt to get back with me, but I'll give him a chance, he wasn't showing any signs of wanting to get back with me. He seemed really interested with the tour, I showed him to the guest room first and after he'd put his things down we could continue with the tour, we were halfway around the castle when we bumped into some of the others, we first saw Ballista, Gildar and Vane.

"Oh hi guys." I said.

"Hey Nightingale." Ballista replied.

"By the way, this is Raven. Raven, I'd like you to meet Ballista, Gildar and Vane, we're all very good friends around here."

"It's nice to meet you Raven." Said Gildar holding out his hand.

"Nice to meet you too." Raven replied shaking Gildar's hand.

We were talking to Ballista, Gildar and Vane for around fifteen minutes before we continued with the tour, I showed Raven everything that there was to see, including the bathrooms, you never know, he may get caught short, I walked Raven back to the guest room and went to the lookout tower for my duty, Kook was waiting for me when I got there.

"Did you miss me?" I asked taking a hold of his hand.

"Have you been somewhere?" Kook joked.

I smiled and gave him a little nudge, smiling back he held my hand, leant over to me and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

"So how's Raven?" Kook asked.

"He's doing okay, he's just unpacking a few of his things. He seemed rather interested with the tour."

"He's not going to get back with you is he?"

"I hope not."

"Well if he does, then he'll have to go through me first."

"Aw, I love it when you get protective."

I went to stand closer to Kook, he wrapped his left arm around my shoulders while I rested my head on his shoulder.

The next day I was up bright and early, despite that the king's marriage was months away, we nearly had everything ready, the reception was planned, all the guests had been decided upon, the final preparations weren't going to be sorted out until nearer the actual date.

Me and Raven were going to be catching up on old times today so he was going to be spending the day with me and Kook at the top of the lookout tower, at least he's going to be able to get to know Kook a bit better too.

Raven was waiting for me and Kook outside the king's quarters when we left to go to our duties, me and Kook were at the top of the lookout tower before Raven, he was still only halfway up, when he finally joined me and Kook he was panting and sweating.

"How…do you guys…manage…to do that…every day?" He asked between breaths.

"You get used to it." Kook replied.

"How long would you guys normally be up here?"

"Well, we'd be here for around 30 minutes before we take it in turns to go for a breakfast break, that will normally be around 45 minutes long, we'd then spend the rest of the day up here."

"All day?"

"Yeah, this is the kind of thing that you'll do in the Splatalot castle."

"Well, I couldn't do what you do. How long have you guys been in a relationship?"

"We've been together for over a year."

"So your dad didn't scare him off then?"

"No, I had a very stern word with him not that long ago when my mum and dad came here for Christmas, he's not the way he was now, by that I mean that he's not as protective of me."

"Good, he made me feel very uncomfortable when we were together."

Raven stayed at the top of the lookout tower when I went down to have my breakfast break, I guess that he doesn't want to go up the stairs again, still while he's with Kook it'll probably give him some time to get to know him.

When my breakfast break was over I went back to Raven and Kook at the lookout tower, before I got to the top, I could hear them talking, I couldn't quite make it out at first, but when I got a bit closer to them I could hear them much more clearly.

"So, you really liked Nightingale?" I heard Kook ask.

"Yeah, would you say that you like her too?" Raven replied.

"Yeah, what would make you think that I don't like her, I really love her to be precise."

"But how much do you love her, how do I know that you're not just saying that?"

"I'm risking my job for her, isn't that enough?"

"I don't know, would you risk your life for her?"

"Well I have actually, my arch enemy's brother came her to kill me for killing his brother and he tried to get to me through Nightingale, thanks to that he nearly killed me, so yeah I would risk my life for her."

I wasn't liking this conversation, I wanted to stop it, but for some reason I couldn't move, my legs were paralysed with fear from what was going to happen, my heart started to pound and my hands and legs started to tremble, I felt like I was going to faint so I sat down on the steps until I'd regained my consciousness, Raven and Kook kept on going.

"You tell me something that you did for Nightingale while you were with her." Said Kook.

"I didn't have a chance to do anything for her, we were only together for a few months."

"Well did you show your love in any other way, like love letters, or at least telling her that you loved her?"

"No, I can't say that I did, but if I could have then I would have."

"Could have? You could have at least told her that you loved her every day, what's your excuse there? Unless you didn't really love her."

"Don't be stupid, of course I loved her, do you want me to prove it?"

I couldn't take this anymore, I slowly got onto my feet and walked up the remaining steps, when I got to the top they were acting as if nothing had happened, but I could see past that, Kook turned around to walk down the steps to go on his break, as he passed me by he leant over and kissed me gently on the cheek, he then walked away without saying a word, Raven was also rather quiet, but I managed to get a slight conversation out of him before Kook came back.

"Were you and Kook alright up here alone?" I asked.

"Yeah, we were fine." Raven replied.

"I could hear you talking about something as I was walking up here, what were you talking about?"

"Not much."

"Nothing important?"

"Nope."

Talk about closed responses, that wasn't much to go on, I thought that I might as well leave the conversation to a minimum, I wouldn't want to give away too much detail that I was listening in on their conversation. When Kook came back, they weren't really talking to each other, I couldn't blame them, I wouldn't be talking to someone if I'd just had a conversation like theirs, please don't make this last all the way through Raven's visit.

That evening, I spent a few hours tossing and turning in my nest, how would Kook want Raven to prove that he loved me when we were together? Whatever it was I knew that it wasn't going to be good.

When I got up the next day I was on my way to the king's quarters as always, when Raven came running over to me, he wanted to talk to me urgently, this may be it, this may be how he's going to show Kook how much he loved me, but I didn't know what he was going to do and I don't want to know.

"Nightingale, wait!" He shouted.

"What's wrong Raven?"

"I just need to talk to you."

"Well what do you want to talk to me about?"

"It's about when we were in a relationship."

"Raven, that's all in the past, it's over now, I'm in a relationship with Kook now too, if you're trying to tell me that you want to get back with me I can't."

"No, it's not that. I just realised that I never really told you how much I loved you, and I didn't really show it that often, and spending some time with you recently made me realise how much I missed you and how much I really loved you, so…"

He was silent for around 3 seconds, I had a vague idea about what he was going to do, I did my best to talk him out of it, but one half of my brain told me that it was no use, whereas the other half was telling me what would happen if this commenced, what would Kook think.

"Look Raven, I have to go, the others are waiting for me at the king's quarters." I said going to walk away but Raven grabbed my arms restricting me, he walked back over to me, he really was serious about this, I went to speak again but Raven stopped my lips by kissing them, my arms went ridged and my eyes went wide, I started to wriggle under his grasp attempting to get free but he was holding onto my arms firmly, I thought that it couldn't get worse than this when it did.

"What the hell!" I heard a voice to my left say, I raised my arms and forced Raven away from me, I looked to my left and Kook was stood there, he was furious. "Nightingale, what are you doing?" He asked me.

"Kook, I can explain, this was nothing to do with me." I explained.

Kook turned to Raven with fury in his eyes. "I should have known." He walked over to Raven until he was inches away from him, but Raven stood his ground. "I knew that you were trouble ever since the first time I met you mate, but if you want Nightingale back then you'll have to go through me first."

"With pleasure." Raven replied.

"Fine, I challenge you to a duel this afternoon, at the top of the lookout tower."

"You're on."

Raven held his hand out ready for Kook to shake, Kook looked down at Raven's hand before looking back up at Raven's face and shaking his hand.

Did I even get a say in this? I might not want this to happen, I don't want two people to fight over me, and what if someone saw them? I have to put a stop to this before it gets out of hand. The duel was going to commence at midday, I had to get there and stop it before it started.

Until that time I decided to relax for a while in my room, I had to get this off my mind for a while, until it was midday. I stood by my bedroom window for around 30 minutes, I looked down and I could see some of the others on their duties, to my right there was Ballista, Gildar and Skabb on defence, after 30 minutes I was still worried about what was going to happen to Kook and Raven, this was all Raven's fault but I still didn't want anything to happen to him, I sat down in my nest to relax, I closed my eyes for what seemed like 5 minutes but when I opened my eyes again it was half past midday, oh no, I'm late, the duel's already started! I quickly got out of my nest and ran all the way to the lookout tower, when I was nearing the top I could hear the sound of their swords clashing, the sound made me speed up.

When I finally got to the top Raven and Kook were both fully focussed on the fight, they hadn't even noticed me, my heart started pounding against my ribcage again, I looked at Kook and I noticed that he had a few tears on his outfit from raven's sword and a few cuts on his arms, Raven was in a rather similar state, I couldn't think of anything that I could do to stop this fight, I was thinking about shouting out to them telling them to stop but before I could Raven got his sword under Kook's and flicked Kook's sword out of his hands, Kook started to back up until his back hit the wall, Raven was about to raise his sword to strike Kook, but I jumped in front of Kook to stop him.

"Raven, please don't do this." I said.

"Nightingale, get out of the way, we've started this duel and we're going to finish it." Raven replied.

"But you don't have to end it this way. Why don't you just apologise for what happened, situations like this don't always have to be solved with a fight, and if this is a way of showing me how much you loved me then I'm glad that we broke up when we did."

"Babe, maybe it will be best if you get out of the way." Said Kook.

"No, if he's going to kill you then he'll have to kill me first."

"So you're risking your life for me?"

"Yeah."

I wasn't sure if he did, but I could feel Kook gesturing at Raven in some way, plus the look on Raven's face when he looked at Kook. Slowly Raven lowered his sword and dropped it on the ground.

"I'm sorry Nightingale, I didn't think about how you felt about this, I shouldn't have even come here to see you."

"Well, if I was you I wouldn't really bother writing to me anymore, because if you do I won't be replying, in fact I would say that the best thing for you to do is to just forget about me and get a life that doesn't involve wasting it on me, because you must have gathered by now that I'm not going to be getting back with you, and if you had won this duel and had killed Kook that wouldn't have impressed me, in fact it wouldn't have done you any good, it would have made me want nothing to do with you."

Raven started to back away from us, and Kook placed his right hand on my shoulder.

"Well said babe."

"So, I guess that you want me to leave?"

"If you think that you should leave then okay, but if you think you'll be able to control your feelings then you can stay, so it's up to you."

"No, I think that it'll be best if I leave…I'll go and get my stuff together then."

"Just wait a minute Raven, if you go now then you'll be waiting for any transport back to Britain until midnight, you can stay until tomorrow and leave tomorrow morning if you're alright with that."

"Okay. Are you ever going to forgive me?"

"After this, it's going to be hard."

Raven left the next morning, as I watched him walk away into the distance, I could feel tears filling my eyes, maybe I was a bit harsh, but he had very nearly killed Kook, I thought that something like that was going to happen, and he said that he wasn't going to try to get back with me.


	27. Chapter 27 Kookaburra and Nightingale

**Chapter 27 Kookaburra and Nightingale**

**Kookaburra**

Is it me or does someone up there hate the fact that me and Nightingale are together, and that's the reason why so many problems are occuring between us, mind you, I can't really think of anything worse that could happen, unless my ex-girlfriend also comes for a visit and also tries to come between me and Nightingale, apart from that everything just seems fine.

Nightingale was very quiet with me from that day on, that moment with Raven obviously put her out of her comfort zone, after 3 days of Raven finally leaving the castle Nightingale was still in a very odd mood and I was still a bit sore from the duel that me and him had over Nightingale, when I got to the top of the lookout tower Nightingale was stood on the far left side, I went over to see if she was alright.

"Are you alright babe? You seem awful quiet." I asked stroking her right cheek.

"Yeah, I'm alright, I just can't get my head around what happened those days ago."

"Babe, you don't have to worry about it, I know that you wouldn't have kissed him like that, I could tell by your body language and the way that you pushed him away, that was a pretty big clue."

"I know that you don't blame me, but just answer me something."

"What?"

"With all these problems that we're confronting, it's not going to make you leave me is it?

"Of course not, if I've told you once I've told you a million times, I love you Nightingale."

She smiled, despite she was rather down in the dumps, she still had that stunning smile, the same smile that always makes me go weak at the knees. That evening we were walking to our rooms when we stopped outside Nightingale's.

"Do you think that these problems that we keep on getting are a sign?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Nightingale replied.

"A sign that we shouldn't really be together?"

"Nah, but what else could go wrong?"

I smiled and stroked her gently on the cheek, she closed her eyes and lowered her head slightly before raising it again and kissing me, I ran my right hand down her left arm and wrapped my left arm around her waist, slowly she raised her arms and wrapped them around my neck, holding her closer to me I spun her to the left lowering her, she raised her left leg over the back of my right leg, sliding it up and down, when I stood her back upright and our lips parted she was slightly unstable on her feet at first, but was soon steady once more.

"Well…I'll see you in the morning then." She said smiling.

"See you in the morning." I replied giving her another kiss on the cheek.

When I walked into my room, I went over to my bedroom window, Nightingale was ahead of me also looking out of her bedroom window, smiling I waved at her, she waved back blowing me and kiss. For some reason I was finding it hard to get to sleep, after rolling around in my nest for around an hour trying to get comfortable I finally got to sleep, while I was asleep I had a wonderful dream about me and Nightingale, we were walking through the woods away from the castle hand in hand, we came to the same clearing that we were at not that long ago, I scooped Nightingale up in my arms spinning around, when I put her back down we continued to spin, hand in hand, when we finished spinning I held Nightingale close to me as she buried her face into my neck, I lowered my right hand to her waist and started tickling her like that time when we both slipped on the ice last year during the winter, we fell onto the soft grass laughing and rolling around, we soon relaxed and stopped rolling and laughing, we both lay on our backs looking up at the sky, I then turned onto my right side looking at Nightingale, she looked back at me, with my left hand I gently stroked her on the cheek, she smiled, I leant over to her and kissed her firmly on the lips, she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me towards her, out of all the other dreams that I've had over the year that me and Nightingale have been together, this has got to be the best dream that I have had so far.

The next morning we were all up early to get a few more things ready for the king's wedding, everyone else was waiting for me and Nightingale, when we arrived there was a few questions that the others were wanting to ask me and Nightingale.

"Morning." I said.

"Morning." Vane replied.

"Sleep well?" Shaiden asked.

"A bit, I struggled to get to sleep but it was only for an hour or so."

"By the way, it may be me but did anyone hear the sound of sword fighting yesterday at midday?" Gildar asked.

"Yeah, I heard it." Knightriss replied.

"Oh, me and Kook know what it was." Said Nightingale.

"What was it then?"

"Kook, do you want to tell them?"

"Oh erm…yeah alright. Yesterday me and Raven got into a big argument because he kissed Nightingale to show me how much he loved her when they were together, it's fair to say that I got a bit angry and challenged him to duel at the top of the lookout tower at midday."

"Oh right. I just thought that it might have been just me, I didn't want to say anything on the day."

We were all talking for ten minutes before two soldiers came over to us, one of them grabbed my left arm and the other grabbed Nightingale's right arm.

"Nightingale, Kookaburra, you're both under arrest." The first soldier said.

"Arrest? Why?" Nightingale asked.

"For breaking the castle rules."

WHAT! How did they know, someone must have told them or told the king, it couldn't have been one of the others else they would have said something, me and Nightingale were marched to the king's quarters, he was leant against the edge of his desk when we were taken inside, his arms were crossed and he looked very, very unhappy.

"Your highness, what's going on?" I asked.

The king shook his head at us before giving his response.

"I'm very disappointed with both of you." He said, me and Nightingale looked at each other in confusion. "One of the soldiers came to me this morning and told me that he'd seen both of you outside Nightingale's room kissing, is there something that you haven't been telling us?"

I lowered my head in shame, I knew that it was going to come to this. "Yes sire, we erm…we've been sort of dating for over a year."

"So you two have been breaking the rules all this time and have been lying to me?"

We nodded.

"Well for that, I'm placing both of you under arrest."

Me and Nightingale were then both marched out of the king's quarters and to the dungeons, I would have held Nightingale's hand to comfort her the way there, but I couldn't as the soldier had a hold of my arms tightly.

We were thrown into a cell down in the dungeons and chained to the walls, the chains were long so we had enough room to move around, the soldiers then walked away leaving me and Nightingale alone, there wasn't anyone in the cells to our left or to our right, but at least we had each other.

Nightingale turned towards me and ran into my arms in fear.

"I'm really scared Kook." She said.

"Don't worry babe, we're going to get through this."

**Nightingale**

I knew that this day was going to come, since the first day that Kook told me how he felt about me, I knew that we were breaking the rules, and as we all know, if you break the rules long enough, you're bound to get caught, even though me and Kook were now in jail, it wasn't that bad as we were still together, but the whole idea of being in jail was terrifying, if my mum and dad could see me now they would go mental.

Me and Kook had been in jail for two days before the others came to speak to us, Crocness was the one in that morning.

"How are you guys doing?" She asked.

"How do you think we're doing? We're in jail." Kook replied.

"I know, it's just that everyone's really concerned about you guys, I have to give them an answer."

"Well despite that we're locked up in here, we're doing alright, we just hope that it's not going to be for much longer." I said. "Is there any news from outside the dungeons?"

"Well the king's wedding has had to be put back a few month so we can get this whole thing sorted out but apart from that there's no other news."

We were talking for around twenty minutes before Crocness went back to the others, if they were all trying to get me and Kook out of jail then I wish that they would hurry up, this isn't the place for me, it's just full of spiders and rats, but I'd rather see a rat than a spider.

After 2 weeks in jail me and Kook were bored out of our heads, we were filthy but we weren't that bothered, the others weren't coming to talk to us that often now as they were so busy with trying to get us out of jail, me and Kook had pretty much given up all hope when one of the soldiers came over to our cell, me and Kook jumped up onto our feet.

"Nightingale, you're free to go." He said.

"But what about Kook?" I asked.

"Kook's going to be spending a little bit more time in here."

I turned to Kook and held his hand before I was taken away from the dungeons.

"Don't worry about me babe, I'll be fine." Said Kook.

I could feel the tears filling my eyes as the soldier led me out of the dungeons, I looked back and Kook was stood against the bars looking back at me, I would have waved but we left the area before I had a chance to.

The first thing that I did when I was out of the dungeons was go to my room to have a wash before going to my duties, I didn't even need to wash my face, most of the dirt had been washed away with my tears, but all my makeup was smudged so I had to wash it all off and reapply it all, there probably wasn't any point, it was mostly going to be getting smudged again.

I wasn't expecting this, but most of the girls were stood near the lookout tower waiting for me, they were talking about something, and it seemed to be rather serious as I gathered from Faetal's facial expression, when they saw me walking over the conversation was suddenly brought to and end.

"Hey guys." I said.

"Hey Nightingale, how are you?" Ballista asked.

"Oh I'm fine, my heart is broken into pieces, the love of my life is still locked up in the dungeons, I may be loosing my job any day now, I don't think that there's anything that could ruin my day."

The girls were silent, and were hanging their heads low.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Erm…we've just heard something about Kook." Knightriss replied.

"What is it? Is he being released?"

"No, he's going to be behind bars for much longer, his crime was much worse than yours, you were just breaking the rules, but Kook was also lying to the king, that's really serious."

"So what's going to happen?"

"Well, I was talking to one of the soldiers about it and he said that the punishment for lying to the king is…is…"

"Is what?"

None of them replied to me.

"Is what?" I repeated sternly.

"We're sorry Nightingale, but the punishment is execution." Shaiden explained.

"WHAT!"

"Kook's going to be executed."

"No, no he can't be. If Kook's going to die then I'm going to die with him."

"Nightingale you can't."

"Don't bother talking me out of it, I've already made up my mind."

I walked past them towards the lookout tower, this conversation is officially over.

"Nightingale, please just listen to us." Said Shaiden grabbing my arm.

"GET OFF ME!" I shouted forcing my arm free.

I went to speak to Kook that very afternoon, he was sat in the corner resting his head on his knees, I walked right up to the bars.

"Kook." I said, as soon as I said his name he looked up at me got onto his feet and dashed over to me. "Are you alright?"

"I am now."

I smiled before the tears fell again.

"I don't want to loose you." I said.

"You're not going to loose me, when all this is over, we may loose our jobs, but we'll still be together, just you wait babe, it'll all work out alright."

"No you don't understand, it's not going to be like that."

"What do you mean babe? You're starting to scare me."

I couldn't tell Kook about what the girls told me, but I had to get it off my chest, and I couldn't leave Kook unaware on what's going to happen, he's bound to find out sooner or later.

"I've been talking to some of the girls, and they've told me why you're being kept down here."

"What did they say?"

"They told me that you're being kept in here because you lied to the king, and they also told me your punishment…they said that…"

I rested my head against the bars, I couldn't tell him.

"Babe, please tell me, what did they say?"

"They said that your punishment is execution."

Kook backed away from the bars, he was as shocked as I was.

"Can't you do something?" He asked.

I shook my head and closed my eyes letting the tears fall again, Kook placed his right hand on my shoulders, I looked back up at him and stroked his left cheek gently, he started to lean forwards to kiss me, I did the same, we were centimetres away from each other when we were interrupted by the soldier to my right.

"Okay Nightingale visiting time's up." He said.

"I'll come and see you tomorrow." I said. "I promise."

"I'll be waiting."

I had to stop this, Kook can't die, and if I can' t stop it then I'll happily kill myself just so I can be with Kook, I spent the rest of my evening trying to think of a way to get Kook out of jail, but it was impossible, even if I did manage to get Kook out, it would be impossible to get him out of the castle without any of the soldiers seeing us, I'm sure that it'll just come to me while I'm not thinking about it, I looked at the clock and it was nearly midnight, I had to get some sleep else I'd be too tired to put my plan into action, I guess that a couple of hours or so won't hurt. Slowly I clambered into my nest and closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly, when I opened them again sunlight was pouring through my bedroom window, I looked at the clock, it was half seven in the morning, if I want to put a plan into action then I'll have to get going to the dungeon.

I was half walking and half running to the dungeons, by the time I got there it was twenty to eight, I dashed down the stairs and down the dark gloomy corridor to Kook's cell, when I finally arrived, he wasn't there, I looked further down to see if he'd been moved, but he hadn't, there was a guard not that far from me so I went to ask him.

"Excuse me, but where's Kookaburra?" I asked.

"He's just been taken to the king's quarters, you should probably get going there too actually, the king wants to speak to both of you urgently."

Without wasting another second I dashed out of the dungeons and to the king's quarters, everyone was sat outside waiting for any news.

"Where's Kook?" I asked.

"He's already in there." Said Thorne.

Gathering all my bravery, I quickly knocked on the door, the king summoned me in so I entered, Kook was stood there with two soldiers, with chains around his wrists.

"Your highness." I said curtseying.

"Good morning Nightingale, I'm glad that you could make it." The king replied. "You two are probably wondering why I've brought you here, well after plenty of thinking and consideration, I've finally come to a conclusion about what I'm going to do about this little 'problem'. To sum up the whole situation I have just two words to say to both of you." I knew what was coming next, I lowered my head preparing myself, but then the king said something that I really wasn't expecting him to say, "I'm sorry."

I raised my head again in shock, before looking to Kook confused.

"I beg your pardon sire?" said Kook.

"I'd like to apologize for what trouble this has brought you two." The king explained. "Many of the other defenders have been coming to me and begging me to let you two stay on the job, and have been telling me all the dilemmas that have occurred during this little secret dating of yours, so I'd just want to say that I'm sorry for all the pain and sadness that I've caused you both and I'd also like to tell you that I have abolished the rule about defenders not being aloud to be in relationships."

Were my ears hearing right? Did the king say that he'd abolished that rule or am I still asleep? I quickly pinched myself, ow, no this is for real.

"So you mean that we're free to be together?" I asked.

"Yes, and Kook, you are now released." The king replied.

The two soldiers stood either side of Kook then unlocked his chains.

"Thank you so much sire, you won't regret this." Said Kook.

This is the best news ever, the rule is abolished and me and Kook are free, even better we still have our jobs, wait until we tell the others, they're not going to believe this.


	28. Chapter 28 Vane

**Chapter 28 Vane**

We were all waiting patiently for Nightingale and Kook to come out from the king's quarters, we were all sure that they were going to get the sack, or worse, execution from lying to the king. Ballista was stood pacing up and down impatiently, she was starting to get on my nerves but I didn't want to mention it, after 10 minutes of waiting the eventually walked out, they seemed very down and depressed, it can't be good news.

"So what did the king say?" I asked.

Nightingale and Kook looked at each other before looking back to the ground, Kook wrapped his arm around Nightingale's shoulders before they answered my question.

"He just wanted to tell us that…that…" Kook started before his facial expression suddenly changed, the frown on his face suddenly melted away and transformed into a beaming smile. "That he wanted to apologize for the problems he's caused us and how upset he's made us feel and how difficult this has been for us both, so he's decided to abolish the rule about defenders being unable to be in relationships, so we're free to be together."

"That's fantastic." Said Faetal.

Everyone was really happy with the news and also relieved, we were all worried about what was going to happen to Nightingale and Kook, we thought that they might just loose their jobs first of all, but when we were informed that Kook may be executed for lying to the king, that was the end of the line and we had to stop the king somehow, it was good to see that he'd taken on the information that we'd given him and the number if reasons why Nightingale and Kook should keep their jobs and why Kook shouldn't be executed.

Now that this problem has been solved we could all focus on the king's wedding, but that was going to be after the king's birthday which was now three days away, while Nightingale and Kook had been locked up in jail we'd been getting the great hall ready for the party, there was still a few things to get done, such as a couple of banners, some streamers and everything will be ready, that afternoon, me, Faetal, Shaiden and Gildar were putting the finishing touches to the party decorations.

Me and Faetal were putting up the last banner when my thoughts changed from the party to Nightingale and Kookaburra.

"What do you think Nightingale and Kook are going to do now they're free to be together?" I asked Faetal.

"I don't know, I guess they can do whatever they want to do now."

The final touches to the great hall were now full completed and we were now ready for the upcoming party.

It's the day of the king's birthday, and everyone was on their way to the great hall, the party was about to start and we had to get there before the king did, by the time that I got there nearly everyone was already there except for Kook, I looked down the corridor and he was just walking over, he seemed nervous about something, he had his hands in his pockets and he was looking down at his feet.

"You alright Kook buddy?" I asked.

"Erm, yeah. I'm fine." He replied.

"It's just that you looked a bit nervous, is there something bothering you?"

"No, no I told you, I'm fine."

Kook walked over to Nightingale and held her hand the second he walked into the room, Kook had timed his arrival just right as the king also walked into the room no less than ten seconds after Kook walked in.

"Surprise!" we all said simultaneously. "Happy birthday your highness."

The king was very surprised, he was expecting a surprise of some sort as we did the same every year for him, but he wasn't expecting something like this, we all settled down so that the king could make his speech.

"Thank you everyone, this is a bit unexpected, when you all said that you had a surprise for me I wasn't expecting this. Before I got here today, Kookaburra came over to talk to me and was wondering if he could make a little announcement." He said.

Kook stood up and walked into the middle of the room.

"Thank you sire, Nightingale could you come up here for a minute?" said Kook.

Rather timidly, Nightingale also stood up and walked over to Kook, Kook got a nearby chair, sat Nightingale down and held her hand.

"Nightingale, we've been through a lot over this year so far, but we've both got through everything that has occurred, and I just wanted to say something." Slowly, Kook got down on one knee. "Nightingale, you are my best friend, my shoulder to lean on, the one person I know I can count on, you're the love of my life, you're my one and only, you're my everything, and I was wondering…" He then reached into his pocket and brought out a small box, opening that box he revealed a ring. "Will you marry me?"

There was a gasp in the room when Kook asked that question, my mouth dropped open in shock, I really wasn't expecting that announcement, there was a second's silence before Nightingale gave her answer, please be yes.

"Oh my God, Kook I don't know what to say." She said.

"Just say yes." Faetal replied.

"You'll make me the happiest guy alive if you do." Said Kook.

"Yes, yes of course I will."

Everyone applauded as Kook placed the ring on Nightingale's finger, so it was now a double celebration, we were all congratulating Nightingale and Kook throughout the party, this may mean that this king's wedding may have to be held back a bit longer for Nightingale and Kook's wedding.

It has been decided that Nightingale and Kook are going to be married in a couple of months, just a few weeks before the king's wedding, we were going to be organising the two weddings at the same time, this way we could get more done in much less time.

On week two there was still another two weeks until Nightingale and Kook's wedding, Nightingale and the girls were busy with the dresses, while us guys were going through some of the things that we were going to be needing for the venue, Nightingale and Kook had gone through the guests, most of their families were going to be there and our families could also come too if they could make it, this was really exciting, I've not been to a wedding in years.

One morning we were waiting for the girls outside the king's quarters waiting for the girls, Kook has already asked Gildar to be his best man, Gildar was happy to and is already working on his best man speech, I think that Kook's starting to feel the pressure as it's getting closer and closer to the day, he'd become much more nervous than he was when we first started planning everything, he cheered up though when Nightingale walked up the corridor with the last of the girls, when they got closer Kook took Nightingale's hand and spun her around romantically, I couldn't help but smile.

"Have you decided who's going to be your best man yet Kook?" she asked.

"Yep, I've asked Gildar and he's agreed to do it." Kook replied.

"Fantastic."

She then threw her arms around Kook's neck kissing him on the cheek.

Nightingale and Kook had the day off so they could plan a bit more of their wedding, such as the style, what they were going to do with the decorations, the king was also with the king of Splazzer City and was planning out his own wedding.


	29. Chapter 29 Knightriss

**Chapter 29 Knightriss**

Everyone was excited about the abolishment of the rule but we were even more excited with the idea of a wedding, we were all so happy for Nightingale and Kook, they most definitely deserve to be together, they'd make the perfect couple, me and the rest of the girls were all helping Nightingale getting her dress ready, while the boys were sorting out the service.

Me, Madeva, Shaiden and Faetal were all helping Nightingale with her dress, we were all in her bedroom that morning, Nightingale was stood on a nearby stool while we were measuring her up for her dress, we were about 30 minutes into the job when Ballista walked into the room holding a wooden box.

"Nightingale, here's the shoes." She said putting the box to one side.

"Great, shall I try them on now?" Nightingale asked.

"Yeah, we'll see how they look."

Nightingale jumped down from the stool, quickly took her boots off and slowly and gently eased these new shoes on, these shoes were pure white, lined with a golden coloured fabric, they had a small bow at the front and a 2 inch high heel, they slipped onto Nightingale's feet easily, when they were on her feet she slowly stood up trying not to stumble, she looked amazing in them.

"What do you think?" She asked.

"They're beautiful." Faetal replied.

Everyone agreed, and they were going to look fantastic with the dress. We now had all the measurements for Nightingale's dress and those were going to be sent to the professionals so they could make the dress, this was all really exciting, Ballista and Faetal were going to be the bridesmaids so we'd also had them measured for the bridesmaids dresses.

With the two weddings getting closer and closer things were really starting to get frustrating, princess Beatrice was coming to visit along with her father the king of Splazzer City so she could have a conversation with Nightingale to ensure that nothing clashed with the weddings, Nightingale told Beatrice what the colour theme her and Kook were going with for their wedding so Beatrice wouldn't do the same, the colour theme that Nightingale and Kook were going for was red and white, so the Ballista and Faetal's dresses were going to be red, this wedding is starting to come together really quickly.

"So, what are you and Kook choosing for your colour theme?" Beatrice asked Nightingale.

"We've decided on red and white, so we're going to be having red and white decorations." Nightingale asked.

"Oh right, just thought that I'd get that out of the way, we wouldn't want to have the same theme."

"Yeah, I see your point."

Princess Beatrice was a really lovely woman once you got to know her better, we've met her before, it was a long time ago before Nightingale, Vane, Madeva and Faetal were hired, Splatalot and Splazzer City were once allies, but it all ended with a big fight between the two kingdoms where the previous king was tragically killed, since then the two kingdoms had been enemies, the whole fight started because Splazzer City kept on trying to persuade the previous king to bring a bit of the modern world into the kingdom. Now that the two kingdoms were being brought together with this marriage there will be a few changes around here and the kingdom may be modernised in some way, I just hope that it's not too drastic.

Our families arrived one by one the next couple of days, Nightingale's family and Kook's family were the first one's to arrive, they were all delighted with the news as soon as they heard it, Nightingale's mum ran over to Nightingale and threw her arms around her as soon as she saw her.

"We're so happy for you sweetheart." She said.

"Thanks mum."

"Where's Kook?"

"He's with his mum and dad, they wanted to say congrats too. You should probably say hello to them."

"Yeah, we should probably get to know them a bit better seeing as we're going to be related soon."

Nightingale was about to take her parents to see Kook's mum and dad when Kook came walking up the corridor along with his mum and dad.

"Oh they're here now."

When Nightingale and Kook's eyes met, they both smiled before holding hands and Kook giving Nightingale a quick kiss on the cheek, I could feel a small smile tugging the corner of my mouth, after all this time of hiding and dreaming of being together, they've managed to find the love that they so desperately desired.

Both weddings were now fully planned and everything was booked and all the guests had arrived, Nightingale and Kookaburra were starting to get slightly nervous now that their wedding was literally days away, but we all feel like that when there's a big event about to happen in your life. Two days later and Nightingale and Kook were getting married the next day, Nightingale's dress and Ballista and Faetal's dresses were now complete, Kook is going to be speechless when he sees Nightingale in her dress.

Despite that it was a big and happy moment about to happen both Nightingale and Kook couldn't stop worrying about it, we were all starting to get very concerned so to settle everyone's minds, I decided to talk to them and ask what had them so worried, they were both sat on one of the benches by the lake in the castle gardens, Kook had his arm wrapped around Nightingale's shoulders whilst holding her hand, I walked over to them and slowly sat down next to them.

"How are you two feeling?" I asked.

"Alright, just a bit nervous." Kook replied.

"You both seem more than nervous, are you sure that there's nothing that we can help you with, it's not too late if there's been a mistake with the wedding plans, we can still fix it."

"No, it's nothing like that Knightriss." Said Nightingale. "We're just worried that something bad is going to happen on the day."

"Like what?"

"Well…say that it starts raining during the service as we're having it outside."

"Don't worry about that, I'll inform the others and if it looks like it may rain in the morning then we can move the wedding inside, how does that sound?"

"Yeah okay, I suppose that'll do." Said Kook.

"Is there anything else on your minds?"

"No, there were a few other things, but they've been sorted out now." Said Nightingale.

"What else was there?"

"Well, I was just confirming with Kook that he's not going to leave me at the altar."

"No, I'd never do that." Kook replied. "You're not going to leave me are you?"

"No, I'd never leave you like that."

Was that all that was on their mind, all that worrying over nothing, if this is what they're like the day before the wedding, god knows what they'll be like on the actual day of the wedding.

That evening, me and Madeva were in our room getting ready for Nightingale's hen party, this is the first hen party that we've been to, we were both rather excited, when we left our room Thorne and Skabb were walking down the corridor to Kook's stag party, Nightingale had invited her mum along with Kook's mum to the hen party, but they decided to give it a miss, they thought that this kind of party wouldn't be for them.

"Hey Thorne, hey Skabb." Said Madeva.

"Hey girls." Said Thorne.

"You two going to Kook's stag party?"

"Yeah, Kook's still a bit nervous about the wedding tomorrow."

"Nightingale's the same, are you sure that you spoke to them about it sis?"

"Yes, and I assure you that the only thing that they were concerned about it raining during the service. I told them that if it looks like rain in the morning then we'll move the wedding inside."

"Are you sure that was all that was on their minds?"

"Yes, they promised me that that was all."

I hope that that was all that was on their minds, if they're starting to have second thoughts about getting married then there's no going back now.

Nightingale's hen party was great fun, all the girls were laughing and having a great time, I was stood talking to Ballista, Crocness and Nightingale after a couple of hours, Nightingale seemed to have calmed down by now, and we were now having a lovely conversation about when Nightingale and Kook had first got together.

"So what kind of things did he say to you?" Shaiden asked.

"He used to leave me all kinds of little letters and notes in my nest expressing his love to me."

"What was your favourite note that he left you"

Nightingale thought carefully. "I'd say that it would be the first note that he left me."

"What did it say?" I asked.

"It said, _'They say a picture says a thousand words, when I see yours, all I see is three, I…love…you'_."

"Aww, that's so romantic."

"I know."

"If that's how romantic he is when you were just dating, imagine what he'd be like once your married."

"I know, it's great isn't it?"

We were all exhausted once the hen party was over and I couldn't wait to get to bed, I was always really serious with when I went to bed, I had to get the correct amount of sleep, I never wanted to be too tired to work, I can't concentrate otherwise, me and Madeva had our outfits ready for the wedding the next day and as Madeva constantly kept on telling me throughout the night that she just couldn't wait until tomorrow, _just go to sleep_, I tried to block her out of my head, but it was no use, eventually I had to tell her to be quiet, I sat up in my bed and looked across the room to her bed.

"Madeva, can you just be quiet? I'm trying to get to sleep." I said.

"Sorry sis, I just can't relax, I'm just so excited about the wedding tomorrow."

"I know, you've told me about twenty times tonight, now please, just be quiet."

"Alright, alright sorry."

I lowered myself back down onto my pillow, I waited for a couple of minutes before closing my eyes again, expecting Madeva to start talking again, she didn't, I was asleep in minutes and the next time my eyes opened the sun was beaming through the window, the day of the wedding was upon us.


	30. Chapter 30 Kookaburra

**Chapter 30 Kookaburra**

The day of our wedding arrived sooner than everyone expected, me and Nightingale were already moving some of her things into my room for when we're married, we were both ever so excited, after the morning all of Nightingale's belongings had been moved and the wedding was in 2 hours, we all dashed to our rooms to get ready, the girls were obviously going to be much longer.

I was halfway with getting my suit on when there was a knock on my bedroom door, I turned and Gildar was stood in the doorway, he was already suited up and ready.

"You alright Kook buddy?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a bit nervous, I never thought that this day would come."

"It's alright mate, you just need to relax, you're bound to be nervous, this is a big moment in your life, but you need to look on the positive side of things, at least it's a beautiful day, so there's no risk of rain."

"Yeah, I know, but I just have this feeling that something or someone is going to spoil everything."

"Who'd do that?"

"Well, what if Raven suddenly comes back to ruin the whole wedding."

"Would he do that?"

"I don't know, it sounds like something that he might do though."

"Does he know about the wedding?"

"No."

"Well what are you worrying about then, if he doesn't know about it then he's not going to spoil it."

I was glad that Gildar was there to comfort me, when I was finished getting my suit on, we both walked to the altar together, Gildar kept on reassuring me that everything was going to be fine. When we got to the altar the vicar was already there talking to my dad and Nightingale's dad.

"Here he is." My dad said when me and Gildar walked over. "You ready son?"

"Err…yeah, I guess."

At that moment Vane came running over to us.

"I've just been to see how Nightingale and the girls are getting on." He said panting.

"What is it, are they alright, has something happened." My heart started beating faster.

"No, nothing's happened, but Nightingale looks fantastic, you're really in for a surprise bro."

My nerves suddenly disappeared and I now couldn't wait to see Nightingale in her dress, I tried to imagine what she may be wearing, but no doubt that whatever she's wearing will be the exact opposite to what I imagine, I completely forgot that the vicar was there, coming back to the real world I turned to talk to the vicar until other people started to arrive.

"Don't worry about it Kookaburra." Said the vicar. "It's perfectly natural to be nervous on your wedding day, I can assure you, everything's going to be absolutely fine, I've done hundreds of weddings"

"Thank you father. I've just been having these feelings all week that something's going to go wrong." I replied.

Me and the vicar were talking for around fifteen minutes until people started taking their seats, now that the moment was getting closer and closer I didn't seem as nervous, my heart wasn't hammering against my ribcage as much anymore, when Thorne went to sit down in his seat with Shaiden and their mum and dad he gave me a quick thumbs up. Everyone was sat in their seats in just a few minutes, my nerves suddenly came back, and I couldn't stop thinking about what Nightingale could be wearing.

Gildar saw that I was starting to get uncomfortable again, he came over to my side patting me on the back.

"Don't worry Kook." He said.

I smiled at him nodding, it wasn't my normal kind of smile, it was a sort of crooked smile which went up in one corner with the other corner staying put, the next thing that I heard was the sound of the music and people standing up from their seats, Nightingale was now walking down the aisle, I looked over my shoulder to look at her, her dress came down to the ground, on the front there was a white patterned silk fabric, which started above her chest and went down all the way down to the bottom of the dress, the rest of the fabric was pure white fabric, the sleeves came down to her hands and were flared at the wrists, her veil came down to her waist at the front but it came down to the ground at the back and was slightly trailing behind the dress, both Ballista and Faetal also looked stunning in their dresses, their dresses were both a dark red colour and came down to the ground, the sleeves came down past their elbows and to their wrists, they were also flared slightly at the wrists but not as much as Nightingale's.

When she finally got to the altar I leant over to her to whisper to her.

"You look beautiful." I whispered.

"Thanks." Nightingale replied.

The vicar then stepped forward to start the service.

"Please be seated." He said.

Everyone sat back down in their seats, the service could now begin.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join together this man and this woman in holy wedlock. First, I am required to ask anyone present who knows a reason why these persons may not lawfully marry, to declare it now."

My hands started to tremble expecting someone to shout out a reason, no one did.

"Then we shall begin." Said the vicar. "The vows you are about to take are to be made in the presence of God, who is judge of all and knows all the secrets of our hearts, therefore if either of you knows a reason why you may not lawfully marry, you must declare it now."

Both me and Nightingale were silent, as soon as those moments were over I let out a sigh of relief, before we could get to the actual marriage, there was declarations to get out of the way.

"Kookaburra, will you take Nightingale to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honour

and protect her, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?" The Vicar

asked.

"I will." I answered.

"Nightingale, will you take Kookaburra to be your husband? Will you love him, comfort him, honour and protect him, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?"

"I will." Nightingale answered.

The vicar then looked to the congregation. "Will you, the families and friends of Kookaburra and Nightingale, support and uphold them in their marriage now and in the years to come?"

"We will." Everyone replied.

When the readings and the sermon was out of the way, it was time for the moment that I was so scared of messing up, the vows, me and Nightingale got up to stand before the vicar.

"Kookaburra and Nightingale, I now invite you to join hands and make your vows, in the presence of God and his people." He said.

Me and Nightingale turned to face each other and held hands, Nightingale could see that I was really nervous about this, I looked up from my hands and looked at Nightingale, she looked deep into my eyes and whispered.

"Just relax babes."

Hearing her voice again made me relax instantly, I was still shaking and worried that I was going to mess up, but I was relaxed enough to get words out of my mouth.

"I Kookaburra, take you Nightingale." Said the vicar for me to repeat.

"I Kookaburra, take you Nightingale." I repeated.

"To be my wife."

"To be my wife."

"To have and to hold from this day forward."

"To have and to hold from this day forward."

"For better, for worse."

"For better, for worse."

"For richer, for poorer."

"For richer, for poorer."

"In sickness and in health."

"In sickness and in health."

"To love and to cherish, till death us do part."

"To love and to cherish, till death us do part."

"According to God's holy law."

"According to God's holy law."

"In the presence of God I make this vow."

"In the presence of God I make this vow."

It then came to Nightingale's turn, she didn't seem that nervous or worried about messing up by looking at her facial expression, body language and the tone of her voice, the only thing that was a bit of a give away was the big exhale she gave when she'd completed her vow. When it came to the giving of the rings Gildar stepped forward and handed the rings over to the vicar, after the quick prayer I gently placed the ring on Nightingale's fourth finger.

"Nightingale, I give you this ring." Said the vicar for me to repeat again.

"Nightingale, I give you this ring." I repeated.

"As a sign of our marriage."

"As a sign of our marriage."

"With my body I honour you, and that I am I give to you."

"With my body I honour you, and that I am I give to you."

"And all that I have I share with you."

"And all that I have I share with you."

"Within the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

"Within the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

Thank goodness that was over now everything was nearly over and just the proclamation was to get by and me and Nightingale would be legally married, I was now starting to relax, and my hands weren't trembling as much, the vicar turned to me and Nightingale for the final time.

"In the presence of God, and before this congregation, Kookaburra and Nightingale have given their consent and made their marriage vows to each other. They have declared their marriage by the joining of hands and by the giving and receiving of rings. I therefore proclaim that they are husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." He said.

I gently lifted the front of Nightingale's veil up revealing her face, I put my hands on her waist, leant forward and gently kissed her, she wrapped her arms tightly around my neck, I moved my left hand to her back and quickly swung her around into the dip kiss position, the only thing that I could now hear was the sound of applause, when our lips parted I couldn't help but smile, this is the best day of my life, I took Nightingale's hand as we walked back up the aisle together, now happily together as husband and wife, and now totally ready for whatever the world would want to throw at us from now on.


End file.
